Benedict XV
Richard Seebohm remembers a forgotten apostle of peace
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:
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