Pope Benedict XV

About Pope Benedict XV

Giacomo della Chiesa was born in Genoa in 1854, into a noble family who wanted him to be a lawyer. He was short, thin and walked with one shoulder higher than the other; he spent years in Vatican diplomacy in the shadow of more brilliant superiors. He was made a cardinal three months before the conclave that elected him.

He took office in September 1914, with Europe just entering the First World War, and spent his entire pontificate trying to stop it. He called the conflict a useless slaughter and proposed a seven-point peace plan that both sides ignored, each accusing him of favouring the enemy. Having failed at diplomacy, he pressed on with charity: he set up an office in the Vatican to trace prisoners and the missing, which passed hundreds of thousands of messages between soldiers and their families, and spent much of the Holy See's wealth on the wounded, on orphans and on refugees.

He also promulgated the first Code of Canon Law, in 1917. He died in 1922. The Turks, who were not Catholic, raised a statue to him in Istanbul calling him the benefactor of all peoples.

A message from Benedict XV is sent as a plea for peace and reconciliation.

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