Benedict XV. Photo: Photo: US Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons.
Benedict XV
Richard Seebohm remembers a forgotten apostle of peace
by Richard Seebohm
24th October 2014
Benedict XV was called ‘the unknown pope’ by one of his biographers. He was elected to head the Roman Catholic Church on 3 September 1914. He died on 22 January 1922. On 28 July 1915, when the first world war had run for nearly a year, pope Benedict addressed an Apostolic Exhortation ‘To The Peoples now at war and to their Rulers’. After speaking of his regret and horror, he went on in the following words:
