POPE BENEDICT XV.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 11

POPE BENEDICT XV.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

WORK IN THE PAPACY. On the death of Pope X., the Cardinals. to whom is now reserved the choice of a new Pope, met in conclave, and in less than a week selected Cardinal della Chiesa, at that time Archbishop of Bologna, Italy. Giacomo della Chiesa was born of a ncble family at Genoa, on November 2, 1854. His first intention was to be a lawyer and he took his degrees in Canon and Civil Law, but afterwards his thoughts turned toward the priesthood. He made his ecclesiastical studies in Rome at the Collegio Capranica, a. famous foundation for several centuries. Later he made a brilliant course of studies at the Academy for Noble Ecclesiastics, in Rome. He was ordained priest on May 28, 1878. The intellectual gifts of the young priest attracted the attention of Pope Leo XIII., and in 1883 he named him one of his Domestic Secretaries. In 1887 he was appointed Secretary to the Papal Nuncio at Madrid, the renowned Cardinal Rampolla, and when Rampolla was chosen Secretary of State, the Pope’s Prime Minister, he appointed the young Monsignor della Chiesa to the important office of Substitute to the Secretary of State. It is interesting to note that this same office was held by Monsignor Cerretti, after his recall -from the Apostolic Delegation in Australasia, and before his recent appointment to be Papal Nuncio at Paris.

The resolute character of Monsignor della Chiesa drew the attention of the new Pope, Pius X., and in 1907 he was chosen far the difficult task of ruling the I Archdiocese of Bologna. The Pope had proposed to appoint him Nuncio at Vienna, but he expressed his desire of remaining a simple prelate. Pius X., however, recognising his great services to the Church determined to nominate him to the Cardinalate, and thus it was ; that at. the Consistory of May 28, 1914. ‘ he. was made Cardinal. Only a few 1 months later, contrary to all expecta- j tions, he was called to the high office of i Supreme Ruler of the Catholic Church and took the name of Benedict XV. POPE’S BIRTH AND BEARING. In (Striking contrast to Pius X., who was of poor and peasant parentage, Benedict XV., was a member of a noble ant} wealthy family, one of his brothers being an admiral of the Italian Navy. Eugßsh papers at the time remarked that this fact proves that the Catholic Church is too spiritually brood and clear-sighted to attach importance—either for or against —to such superficial details as the accident of birth or the veneer of worldly advantages. In appearance Benedict XV. was dark complexioned, with a firm mouth, square forehead, keen, lustrous brown eyes which missed nothing, about the ordinary standard in height, and moved and walked with great dignity. There was nothing slipshod about him in style, dress, or work. Unlike his predecessor, who to the end was a simple, openhanded parish priest, who loved a gossip with a peasant far more than a function in his palace —Benedict XVwas first and foremost a thoughtful and highly -gifted man of affairs, without prejudices, but a man who knew his own mind. His marvellous memory and rare gift of sifting grain from chaff, his charm of manner and melodious voice, his powers of literary expression and of marshalling facts and arranging them in order of relative value, always impi eased those who had dealings with him. To these must be. added a dislike of vulgar display, a love of art and music, a genuine simplicity of life, and a tremendous power of sustained work. During his six years’ of work at Bologna ha was. immersed in the details of his ■diocese* and won the hearts of his people by his ready sympathy with the poor and suffering, by his judicial Qurness, and by his most successful efforts to improve the social conditions of the workers. He was, even in a land noted for its orators, a speaker of the very first rank, and his sermons are reckoned to be models of eloquence and evangelical simplicity. THE POPE AND THE WAR. . Benedict XV. became Pope a few weeks after the great war had hurried his broken hearted predecessoi 1 z to the grave. He art once took up an attitude of neutrality and rigidly kept to it, at the same time taking care to explain his attitude. He pointed out that he was the head of a religious communion numbering over 300 millions. If 60 millions of these, Germans and Austrians, were ranged on one s :,1 o, 12C millions were to be found on - side of the Allies. He was not aske.. to arbitrate, and no one professed any willingness to abide by his decision. So he remained neutral, and his Catholic people on both sides were satisfied. For the rest, he proclaimed from his high position the eternal principles of justice and Christian charity, made several attempts to * bring about peace, sometimes when the , Allies’ cause seemed lost, enunciated principles of peace which President Wilson gave to the world as his 14 points,, and anticipated the Washington Conference by proclaiming that disarmament must come or European civilisation itself would perish. During the years of war and since the Pope spent several millions of pounds, contributed by Catholics the world over, in relieving distress in Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia. Three months after the begin-

ning of the war the Pope opened up an “office in favor of prisoners of war.” This office, for the benefit of prisoners

of all belligerents, made inquiries regarding missing soldiers and investigations of every kind in regard to their condition. The Pope was able to do | this work for hundreds of thousands of anxious parents through the machinery of the Church, and Mr. Bonar Law publicly thanked him in the British House of Commons for what was done for British prisoners. By means of diplomatic representation the Pope was able to stop the threatened reprisals on prisoners of war, to have emany thousands of invalid and wounded prisoners transferred for treatment in Switzerland, and even 'brought about an interchange of prisoner? between France, Belgium, Great Britain and Russia on the one side, and Germany on the other, and) later, between Italy and Austro-Hungary. In all this humane work the Pope proved himself a man of broad and practical • charity.