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The Unknown Pope: Benedict XV (1914-1922) and the Pursuit of Peace. By John E Pollard. (London: Geoffrey Chapman. 1999. Pp. xv, 240. L16.99 clothbound; L12.95 paperback.)
Benedict XV (1854-1922), born Giacomo Della Chiesa, was probably one of the most capable and best prepared for his high office of all of the Roman pontiffs of the last two centuries. Yet of the ten popes who have held the papal office since Pius IX's election in 1846 we known much less about him than we do about all the others, except for John Paul I, who died shortly after his election in 1978. Benedict XV's pontificate was to be obscured by the great catastrophe of World War I and the widespread political disorders that followed it.
Like Leo XIII (1878-1903) and Pius XII (1939-1958) Benedict XV came from an aristocratic and urban background and from an earlier career in diplomacy. Before leaving his native city of Genoa he took a doctorate in civil law at its university. He then went on to Rome to study for the priesthood and next to enter the Gregorian University, where he would take doctorates in theology and canon law. However, the turning point in his career would come when he met Msgr. Mariano Rampolla, who would soon serve as the papal nuncio to Spain (1881-1886) and then become the papal secretary of state in 1887. Rampolla brought the young priest with him to Madrid to serve as his secretary and later took Della Chiesa into the secretariat of state after he became its head. Della Chiesa eventually secured the position of under secretary in that department, an important position in it. However, Rampolla suffered a deep tragedy in his career and life when Cardinal Puzyna of Cracow in Austria cast a veto ballot against him in the papal election of 1903. Cardinal Puzyna had made use in the election of a right that the Holy See had conferred on the Habsburg dynasty several centuries earlier.1 Naturally enough, Della Chiesa's career also experienced a setback because of his patron's historic defeat.
1Many years ago while in Germany I came upon a statement by...