‘The combatants are the greatest and wealthiest
nations of the earth; what wonder, then, if, well provided with the most awful
weapons modern military science has devised, they strive to destroy one another
with refinements of horror. There is no
measure of ruin and slaughter; day by day the earth is drenched with the
newly-shed blood, and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and the
slain....
We implore those in whose hands are placed the
fortunes of nations to hearken our voice.
Surely there are other means whereby violated rights can be
rectified. Let them be tried honestly
and with good will, and let arms meanwhile be laid aside.’ Benedict offered a series of proposals
stressing that there should be a return to the situation before the outbreak of
hostilities with no winners or losers.
On the first anniversary of the outbreak he wrote that nations that are
humiliated transmit ‘from one generation to the next a sad legacy of hatred and
vendetta.’
Both the Allies (France, Britain and Russia) and
the Central Powers (Austro-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire)
claimed that the Vatican favoured the other side and so they justified their
deafness to the Pope’s appeals. The
truth was that neither side wanted peace – especially not in the early
stages. Having committed their nations
to war the leaders on both sides required total victory. The French Ambassador to Washington wrote in
1916 that ‘anyone suggesting peace now would be considered by my people as a
friend of Germany.’ In the 1915 Treaty
of London that brought Italy into the war on the side of the Allies, the Allies
committed themselves to ignoring Vatican peace efforts. Italy was afraid that any indication of Papal
influence would be a threat to their ability to hold on to the Papal States,
which had become part of Italy, by force, in 1870.
President Woodrow Wilson of the United States was
determined to keep the US out of the War.
His approach was similar to Benedict’s ‘I think that the chances of a
just and lasting peace, and of the only possible peace that will be lasting,
will be happiest if no nation gets the decision by arms.’ The worst possible outcome would be if ‘one
or a group of nations succeeds in enforcing its will upon the others.’ In January 1917, he delivered his ‘peace without victory’
speech to the US Congress calling for an agreement ‘among equals, without
humiliation, victors and vanquished.’
Though the approach of Wilson and Benedict were
similar they were not able to combine their peace efforts. There would have been a certain amount of
anti-Catholic bias among many Americans and any suggestion of Vatican-US
co-operation would be deeply resented in some quarters. In any case Germany resumed submarine warfare
in February 1917 and judging ‘this’ as a direct threat to its own shipping, the
United States, following further incidents, declared war against Germany in
April 1917.
Benedict was now the only peace-broker and renewed
his efforts. In August 1917 he issued
the ‘Peace Note’ – his most detailed and ambitious proposal yet. Assuring them of his ‘perfect impartiality’
he reminded all the belligerents of his previous efforts at peace:
‘Unfortunately our appeal was not heeded and the
war was fiercely carried on for two years more with all its horrors. It became even more cruel and spread over
land and sea and even to the air, and the desolation and death were seen to
fall upon defenceless cities, peaceful villages and their innocent
populations. And now no one can image
how much the general suffering (will) increase and become worse.... Is this civilised world to be turned into a
field of death? And is Europe, so
glorious and flourishing, to rush, as carried by a universal folly, to the
abyss and take a hand in its own suicide?’
The note stipulated seven conditions for peace and
was greeted with great public attention.
The French position was that the Note was written under ‘inimical influences’
presumably meaning pressure from Austrian and Germany. This opinion was shared by the other
Allies. With millions of their people
dead, the Pope’s call for a non-punitive peace would imply that the War had
been for nothing.
A punitive peace was imposed at Versailles which
continues to cast a long shadow on the world.
Pope Benedict unfortunately was not allowed to have his voice heard at
Versailles.
I
am indebted to Francis Rooney, author of ‘The Global Vatican’
