Editing Pope Benedict XV (section)

== Diplomatic agenda ==
[[File:BenedictXVferrata1914.jpg|thumb|180px|Under Pope Benedict XV, Cardinals [[Domenico Ferrata]] (above) and [[Rafael Merry del Val]] in 1914 switched positions in the Vatican.]]

In the post-war period, Pope Benedict XV was involved in developing the Church administration to deal with the new international system that had emerged. The papacy was faced with the emergence of numerous new states such as [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]], [[History of Lithuania#Independence (1918–1940)|Lithuania]], [[History of Estonia (1920–1939)|Estonia]], [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]], Finland, and others. [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], [[Intrwar France|France]], Italy, and [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]] were impoverished from the war. In addition, the traditional social and cultural European order was threatened by right-wing nationalism and fascism as well as left-wing socialism and communism, all of which potentially threatened the existence and freedom of the Church. To deal with these and related issues, Benedict engaged in what he knew best, a large scale diplomatic offensive to secure the rights of the faithful in all countries.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

=== Italy ===
[[Leo XIII]] already had agreed to the participation of Catholics in local but not national politics. Relations with Italy improved as well under Benedict XV, who de facto reversed the stiff anti-Italian policy of his predecessors by allowing Catholics to participate in national elections as well. This led to a surgence of the [[Italian People's Party (1919)|Italian People's Party]] under [[Luigi Sturzo]]. Anti-Catholic politicians were gradually replaced by persons who were neutral or even sympathetic to the Catholic Church. King [[Victor Emmanuel III]] himself gave signals of his desire for better relations, when, for example, he sent personal condolences to the Pontiff on the death of his brother.<ref>Pollard 163</ref>

Benedict XV, along with most traditional Catholics of his time, opposed voting rights for women in principle, on the grounds that it would take them out of their "natural sphere".<ref>Pollard 173</ref> However, he was pragmatic and recognized female suffrage could be a "social necessity in some countries...in order to counter the generally subversive views of the socialists with the supposedly conservative votes of women", believing that women would help support traditional Catholic positions if granted suffrage.<ref>Pollard 174</ref>

=== France ===
[[File:Scherrer jeanne enters orlean.jpg|thumb|190px|''Joan of Arc enters Orléans'' (painting by J.J. Sherer, 1887). Joan was canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.]]

Benedict XV also attempted to improve relations with the anti-clerical Republican government of France, and canonized the French national heroine Saint [[Joan of Arc]]. In the mission territories of the [[Third World]], he emphasized the necessity of training native priests to quickly replace the European missionaries, and founded the [[Pontifical Oriental Institute]] and the Coptic College in the Vatican. Pius XI would entrust the "Orientale" to the [[Jesuits]] and make it a part of the Jesuit's [[Gregorian Consortium]] in Rome (along with the [[Gregorian University]] and the [[Biblicum]]).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://unipio.org/it/storia/|title=Storia del P.I.O.|work=Orientale|access-date=20 December 2017|language=it-IT|archive-date=22 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222050804/https://unipio.org/it/storia/}}</ref> In 1921, France re-established diplomatic relations with the Vatican.<ref>Franzen 381,</ref>

=== Soviet Union ===
{{main|Holy See–Soviet Union relations}}
[[File:Pietro Gasparri.jpg|180px|thumb|upright|[[Cardinal Secretary of State]] [[Pietro Gasparri]]]]
The end of the war caused the revolutionary development, which Benedict XV had foreseen in his first encyclical. With the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]], the [[Holy See|Vatican]] was faced with a new, so far unknown, situation.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

=== Lithuania and Estonia ===
[[File:Rampolla 1913.jpg|145px|thumb|left|His friend Cardinal Rampolla at the age of 70, shortly before his death]]
The relations with Russia changed drastically for a second reason. The [[Baltic states]] and Poland gained their independence from Russia after [[World War I]], thus enabling a relatively free Church life in those former Russia-controlled countries. Estonia was the first country to look for [[Holy See|Vatican]] ties. On 11 April 1919, [[Cardinal Secretary of State]] Pietro Gasparri informed the Estonian authorities that the Vatican would agree to have diplomatic relations. A [[concordat]] was agreed upon in principle a year later in June 1920. It was signed on 30 May 1922. It guaranteed freedom for the Catholic Church, established archdioceses, liberated clergy from military service, allowed the creation of seminaries and Catholic schools, and enshrined church property rights and immunity. The Archbishop swore alliance to Estonia.<ref>Schmidlin III, 305</ref>

Relations with Catholic Lithuania were slightly more complicated because of the [[Polish occupation of Vilnius|Polish occupation]] of [[Vilnius]], a city and archiepiscopal seat, which Lithuania claimed as its own.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}} This generated several protests by Lithuania to the Holy See.<ref>Schmidlin III, 306.</ref>

=== Poland ===
Before all other heads of state, Pope Benedict XV in October 1918 congratulated the Polish people on their independence.<ref name="Schmidlin III, 306">Schmidlin III, 306</ref> In a public letter to Archbishop [[Aleksander Kakowski]] of [[Warsaw]], he remembered their loyalty and the many efforts of the Holy See to assist them. He expressed his hopes that [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] would again take its place in the family of nations and continue its history as an educated Christian nation.<ref name="Schmidlin III, 306" /> In March 1919, he nominated 10 new bishops and, soon after, [[Achille Ratti]], who was already in Warsaw as his representative, as [[Apostolic Nunciature to Poland|papal nuncio]].<ref name="Schmidlin III, 306" /> He repeatedly cautioned Polish authorities against persecuting Lithuanian and [[Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church|Ruthenian]] clergy.<ref name="Schmidlin III, 307">Schmidlin III, 307</ref> During the Bolshevik advance against Warsaw during the [[Polish–Soviet War]], he asked for worldwide public prayers for Poland. [[Nuncio]] Ratti was the only foreign diplomat to stay in the Polish capital. On 11 June 1921, he wrote to the Polish episcopate, warning against political misuses of spiritual power, urging again for peaceful coexistence with neighbouring peoples, stating that "love of country has its limits in justice and obligations".<ref>AAS 1921, 566</ref> He sent nuncio Ratti to Silesia to act against potential political agitations of the Catholic clergy.<ref name="Schmidlin III, 307" />

Ratti, a scholar, intended to work for Poland and build bridges to the [[Soviet Union]], hoping even to shed his blood for Russia.<ref name="Stehle 25">Stehle 25</ref> Pope Benedict XV needed him as a diplomat and not as a [[martyr]] and forbade any trip into the [[USSR]] even though he was the official papal delegate to Russia.<ref name="Stehle 25" /> However, he continued his contacts with Russia. This did not generate much sympathy for him within Poland at the time. He was asked to go. While he tried honestly to show himself as a friend of Poland, Warsaw forced his departure after his neutrality in [[Silesia]]n voting was questioned<ref>Stehle 26</ref> by Germans and Poles. Nationalistic Germans objected to a Polish nuncio supervising elections, and Poles were upset because he curtailed agitating clergy.<ref name="Schmidlin IV, 15">Schmidlin IV, 15</ref> On 20 November, when German Cardinal [[Adolf Bertram]] announced a papal ban on all political activities of clergymen, calls for Ratti's expulsion climaxed in Warsaw.<ref name="Schmidlin IV, 15" />

=== United States ===
{{See also|List of meetings between the pope and the president of the United States}}
[[File:Benedict xv pontifex (cropped).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Benedict XV by [[Antonio Fabrés]] (1916, [[Museo del Prado]])]]
Cardinal [[James Gibbons]] helped secure a [[List of meetings between the pope and the president of the United States|meeting between the pope and President Woodrow Wilson]] which took place on 4 January 1919. The cardinal had sent a letter to the President imploring him to visit the pope after learning that Wilson was to go to Europe. Not long after, Wilson confirmed the visit and went to meet the pope accompanied by the [[Pontifical North American College]] rector Charles O'Hearn. Benedict XV took Wilson by the hand and led him into the study for their meeting, with the pope later presenting Wilson with a gift: a [[mosaic]] of [[Saint Peter]]. The interpreter had to be present for the meeting, since the pope was speaking in French, and Wilson only spoke English. The presidential party was presented to the pope, and after presenting his personal physician Admiral [[Cary T. Grayson|Grayson]] (telling the pope that he "is the man who keeps me well"), the pope said: "Apparently, he has done a splendid job", before offering words to Grayson. The pope blessed the entourage, despite Wilson's slight confusion, after the pope assured Wilson his blessing did not discriminate those of other faiths, since Wilson was a [[Presbyterian]].<ref name=Mag>{{cite web|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/pope-and-president-benedict-xv-and-woodrow-wilson-are-there-any-catholics-here|title=When presidents and popes meet: Woodrow Wilson and Benedict XV|date=4 September 2015|author=Joseph McAuley|work=America Magazine|access-date=22 May 2018}}</ref>

=== Ireland ===
{{main|Easter Rising|Anglo-Irish Treaty}}

Following the declaration of the [[Irish Republic]] in 1919, Benedict XV was visited by [[Seán T. O'Kelly]] in May 1920, who explained Irish politics and presented a memorandum, hoping for support from the "Sovereign Pontiff".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.difp.ie/volume-1/1920/memorandum-by-sean-t-oceallaigh-to-pope-benedict-xv/35/#section-documentpage | title=Documents on Irish Foreign Policy – Volume 1 }}</ref>

In 1921, a [[Anglo-Irish Treaty|peace agreement]] was formalized between the [[British Empire]] and the [[Irish Republic]] that saw to the end of the [[Irish War of Independence]]. Negotiations were conducted in [[London]], however, there was a rise in tension during the negotiations over separate telegrams sent to Benedict XV by both King [[George V]] and [[Éamon de Valera]]. The telegram sent by de Valera took issue with the language that George V used in his message to the pope and responded to simply clarify the nature between both parties and the reasons that there had been tension between the two.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/peace-conference-continues-despite-furore-over-de-valera-telegram|title=Peace conference continues despite furore over de Valera telegram to Vatican|publisher=Century Ireland|author=|date=25 October 1921|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> In his letter to George V, the Pope praised the ongoing efforts for peace, saying that "We rejoice at the resumption of the Anglo-Irish negotiations" and that the negotiations would "end the age-long dissention" between both sides.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.creativecentenaries.org/on-this-day/pope-benedict-xv-prays-for-the-peace-settlement|title=Pope Benedict XV prays for the peace settlement|publisher=The Scotsman|author=|date=20 October 1921|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> Benedict XV further declared himself "overjoyed with the agreement happily reached in regard to Ireland".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/catholic-world-in-mourning-over-death-of-pope-benedict-xv|title=Catholic world in mourning over death of Pope Benedict XV|publisher=Century Ireland|author=|date=24 January 1922|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref>

A source of contention, despite firm denials by the Holy See in 1933, is the allegation that Benedict XV, in a private interview with [[Papal count|Count]] [[George Noble Plunkett]] in mid-April 1916, imparted an [[Apostolic blessing]] to the Irish Republic just two weeks before the [[Easter Rising]]. The fact that the Pope is purported to have done so was widely accepted by [[Irish republicanism|Republicans]], though categorically denied later by ''[[L'Osservatore Romano]]'' in 1933. Additionally, it was alleged that Plunkett pledged the Irish Republic to fidelity to the Holy See, with the Pope formally imparting his blessing on the endeavors of the Irish Republic, prompting the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh|Archbishop of Armagh]] [[Michael Logue]] to send a telegram to the Pope on 30 April 1916 asking for a clarification as to what occurred during the meeting. When ''L'Osservatore Romano'' denied these claims in 1933, the paper said that "the news was entirely unfounded" and that the actions of Benedict XV were "in open contradiction to the well-known gentleness of the late Pontiff and to his most lively desire for peace and the prevention of any further effusion of blood". Plunkett himself affirmed the truth of the allegations, saying "The fact is that the that the Papal Blessing given the men of 1916 by Pope Benedict has only one witness remaining – myself. Those who profess to refute me have not evidence to support them".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishcatholic.com/did-benedict-xv-the-pope-of-peace-bless-the-easter-rising/|title=Did Benedict XV, 'the Pope of Peace', Bless the Easter Rising?|publisher=The Irish Catholic|date=3 January 2019|author=|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref>