A Peaceful Pope in a World at War

Outline:

A. The opening days of the Great War; failure of diplomacy and the application of pre-war plans.  Schlieffen Plan:  “German army attacks Trois Virgens”

B.  The conclave of 1914.  Benedict’s early moves.  “My goodness, we have already a professed pope, not a novice.”  The Great War:  “the scourge of the wrath of God.”

C.  Of battles and weapons.  Rapid fire field guns.   Heavy artillery.  The infantry rifle.  Machine gun.  Trenches.

D.  Christmas 1916:  the world is a hospital and a cemetery.  The Battle of Verdun.  The Battle of the Somme.

E.  The reasoning behind Benedict’s neutrality:  “the suicide of civilized Europe;” “the darkest tragedy of human hatred and human madness.”  The cycle of hate and revenge had to be broken.  Benedict on Versailles:  “a consecration of hatred.”  Marshal Foch on Versailles:  “this is not peace; it is a truce for twenty years.”