Editing Pope Benedict XV (section)

=== 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" />