Permission to say three Masses at Christmas, given
to all priests even where there was no congregation, was something that went
back many centuries. But the privilege
of being allowed to say three Requiem Masses on the Commemoration of All Souls
was granted to all priests all over the world by Pope Benedict XV in 1915. He was moved to do this by the thought of the
many thousands of soldiers who had already been killed in the War. ‘We perceive almost before our eyes such a multitude
of men in the flower of their youth, succumb to premature death in battle. Though the piety of their kindred may not be
lacking, who will say nevertheless that it is equal to the need?’
The day after Italy entered the War, 25th
May 1915 Pope Benedict ordered Catholics all over the world to observe a fast
of three days and asked for children to make their First Holy Communion with
the special prayers for ending the War.
He added the invocation ‘Queen of Peace, pray for us’ to the Litany of
Our Lady. He also ordered a special day
of prayer for peace to be observed throughout the world. From the beginning of his Papal ministry he
had striven, in his own words, ‘to maintain an absolute impartiality towards
all belligerents as becomes him who is the common father and who loves all his
children with an equal affection.’ The
Pope’s persistent efforts to bring about peace were greeted with great
hostility in the warring countries. In
Britain, the Catholic bishops were very anxious that Catholics should be seen
to be loyal to King and Country.
Cardinal Bourne was the Archbishop of Westminster and was in constant
contact with the Vatican. He was anxious
to warn the Pope not to take actions that would antagonise the British
Government. He was in Rome in December
1916 at the time of Benedict’s Peace Note, one of his many diplomatic efforts
to end the war. Bourne said to Italian journalists
that the note was a piece of common trickery and a vulgar trap. He wrote to the Duke of Norfolk assuring him
that he was doing his best in Rome to serve the cause of the Allies. He complained that ‘Italian opinion,
especially in clerical circles, is somewhat lukewarm and too ready for peace at
any price.’ Later in the War Bourne
wrote ‘Be not misled, peace is not ‘the greatest gift God can bestow’ unless it
is founded on justice. Do not be carried
away by formulae such as ‘no indemnities, no annexations.’ Justice may ask for time. Peace without justice is not worth
having.’ The Peace Note of Benedict had
stressed that demands for reparations and indemnities should be renounced and
that occupied territories should be restored.
Cardinal Bourne declared in a Pastoral Letter of 10th
September 1916, which was to be read at all Sunday Masses in his Diocese: ‘The
Pope has proposed that all the belligerents should come to a compromise. No! We demand the total triumph of right over
wrong. WE do not want a truce or
armistice between two Wars. There may be
in our land some people who want peace at any price. But they have no following among us. We English Catholics are fully behind our War
leaders!’ It is truly amazing that
someone who was Archbishop of Westminster for over thirty years and a major
figure in the history of the Catholic Church in twentieth century England
should be so publicly disloyal to the Pope.
After the introduction of conscription in Britain
in January 1916 ‘The Guild of the Pope’s Peace’ was established in England to
promote the Pope’s call for a negotiated peace.
It issued a document which was published by the Catholic Truth
Society. Bishop Amigo of Southwark (in
whose Diocese the CTS offices were) wrote to the CTS criticising them for
publishing it. The Secretary of the CTS
issued an apology in the Catholic weekly, The Tablet. The Catholic Bishop of Clifton wrote to the
press publicly condemning the Guild: ‘Whatever authority be behind this
stop-the-war Guild, it has no sanction or countenance from us and will receive
none, as we trust, from any of our clergy or people.’ There were pastoral letters and sermons
calling for total victory from the Archbishop of Liverpool and two successive
bishops of Nottingham. The Universe
condemned the Guild and The Tablet rejected Benedict’s Peace Note as did the
only British Cardinal in the Curia, Cardinal Gasquet. Those who tried to gain the support of
Catholics in England for the Pope’s Peace efforts were isolated voices.
The Guild of the Pope’s Peace, in another booklet,
asked: ‘How is it that even now after the Pope’s proposal of terms which would
secure all the finer objects for which our politicians claimed to be fighting
and for which the masses of our soldiers are indeed fighting there are many
Catholics who still reject the Holy Father’s mediation? Not only do they reject it, some even approve
the calumnies of the War press against the Holy Father.’
I
am indebted to Father Ashley Beck’s booklet ‘Benedict XV and World War I
