POPE BENEDICT XV
  Giacomo P.G.B. della Chiesa
(b.1854, el.1914, †1922)
 

 

BENEDICT XV, (1854–1922), Pope from 1914. Giacomo P. G. B. della Chiesa was born at Pegli in the diocese of Genoa, and studied at Genoa and at the Gregorian University, Rome. From 1883 to 1887 he was in Spain as secretary to Cardinal Rampolla, then Papal Nuncio at Madrid; and when the latter was recalled in 1887, della Chiesa returned to Rome with him, and remained there until appointed Abp. of Bologna in 1907. On the death of Pius X shortly after the outbreak of the war of 1914–1918 he was elected to succeed him. While endeavouring to preserve the neutrality, of the Holy See, he protested against inhuman methods of warfare and made several strenuous efforts to bring about peace. After the war he continued to work for international reconciliation. In 1917 he promulgated the code of canon law (Codex Iuris Canonici), which was almost complete at the time of his election. He paved the way for a better understanding with the E. Churches by the establishment in the same year of the Congregation for the Oriental Church and the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. In an apostolic letter of 30 Nov. 1919 (‘Maximum illud’) he urged missionary bishops to build up a native clergy as well as to seek the welfare of the people among whom they worked. During his pontificate a British representative was accredited to the Papal court for the first time since the 17th cent.

Official acts of his pontificate in AAS, vol. 6 (1914) p. 473–vol. 14 (1922), p. 92 (incl. the accounts of his election and funeral). W. Steglich (ed.), Der Friendensappell Papst Benedikts XV. vom 1. August 1917 und die Mittelmachte: Diplomatische Aktenstücke des deutschen Auswärtigen Amtes … aus den Jahren 1915–1922 (Wiesbaden, 1970). The many Lives include those by F. Vistalli (Rome, 1928), G. Migliori (Milan, 1932), H. E. G. Rope (London, 1941), F. Hayward (Paris, 1955), and W. H. Peters (Milwaukee [1959]). G. Rossini (ed.), Benedetto XV, i cattolici e la prima guerra mondiale: Atti del Convegno di Studio tenuto a Spoleto nei giorni 7–8–9 settembre 1962 (1963). J. F. Pollard, The Unknown Pope: Benedict XV (1914–1922) and the Pursuit of Peace (1999). E. de Moreau, SJ, in DHGE 8 (1935), cols. 167–72, s.v. ‘Benoîet XV’; G. de Rosa in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 8 (1966), pp. 408–17, s.v. ‘Benedetto XV’; J. Hitchcock in NCE (2nd edn.), 2 (2003), pp. 248–51, s.v.

 

 

 

xcxxcxxc  F ” “ This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990....x....  ’ “”.