White smoke

Any relation to ? Ne'mind, it's Ratzinger.

Oh no! Ratzinger is extremely conservative and traditional.
The hopes for a catholic reform or at least leniency in
its doctrine have vanished.

and Pope John Paul I was only Pope for a month before he died. John Paul II was going to pick Stansilas (or something like that) before he decided on John Paul II

Perhaps only delayed.... he is 78 years old

fbaezer, can you give me a Cliff's notes version of Benedict XV?

I know that I have an involuntary shudder/ uh-oh not him reaction, but I don't remember why and there's a lot to read on the site you linked to.

The name again: John XXIV would have been great. Paul VII would have been OK. Pious XIII would have been worse than Benedict XVI. (John Paul III was barely thinkable).

Didn't remember Pope Benedikt XV. Had to look it up. Don't like the name too much, but then I don't like Ratzinger too much.

Pope Benedikt XV...

Yes rog..Ratzinger...Ratzenhofer..hmmmm anyone seen Gus today?

From Wikipedia:

Pope Benedict XV, born Giacomo della Chiesa, (November 21, 1854 - January 22, 1922) was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1914 to 1922; he succeeded Pope Saint Pius X.

Chiesa was born in Genoa, Italy, of a noble family. He acquired a doctorate of law in 1875, after which he studied for the priesthood and then the training school for the Vatican diplomatic service; most of his career was spent in the service of the Vatican.


Mariano Cardinal Rampolla was a friend and patron, employing him as a secretary on being posted to Madrid and subsequently upon being appointed Secretary of State. During these years Chiesa helped negotiate the resolution of a dispute between Germany and Spain over the Caroline Islands as well as organising relief during a cholera epidemic. When Rampolla left his post with the election of Pius X, and was succeeded by Merry Cardinal del Val, Chiesa was retained in his post.

But Chiesa's association with Rampolla, the architect of Leo XIII's relatively liberal foreign policy and Pius X's rival in the conclave of 1903, the new ultra-conservative regime suspicious of him. He was soon moved out of the diplomatic service and the centre of Church power in Rome, on 16 December 1907 becoming Archbishop of Bologna.

On 25 May 1914 Chiesa was appointed a cardinal and, in this capacity, on the outbreak of World War I?-with the papacy vacant upon Pius X's death on 20 August?-he made a speech on the Church's position and duties, emphasising the need for neutrality and promoting peace and the easing of suffering. The conclave opened at the end of August, and, on 3 September 1914, Chiesa was elected Pope, taking the name of Benedict XV.

His pontificate was dominated by the war and its turbulent aftermath. He organised significant humanitarian efforts (establishing a Vatican bureau, for instance, to help prisoners of war from all nations contact their families) and made many unsuccessful attempts to negotiate peace. The best known was the Papal Peace proposal of 1917, but both sides saw him as biased in favour of the other and were unwilling to accept the terms he proposed. This resentment resulted in the exclusion of the Vatican from the negotations that brought about the war's end; despite this, he wrote an encyclical pleading for international reconciliation, Pacem Dei munus. In the post-war period Benedict was involved in developing the Church administration to deal with the new international system that had emerged.

In internal Church affairs, Benedict calmed the excesses of the campaign against supposedly modernist scholars within the Church that had characterised the reign of St. Pius X. He also promulgated a new Code of Canon Law in 1917 and attempted to improve relations with the anticlerical Republican government of France by canonising the French national heroine Joan of Arc. In the mission territories of the Third World, he emphasised the necessity of training native priests to replace the European missionaries as soon as possible.

In his private spiritual life, Benedict was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the modern Popes was the most fervent in propagating the wearing of the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, endorsing the claim that wearing it piously brings "the singular privilege of protection after death" from eternal damnation, and giving an indulgence for every time it was kissed.

Benedict XV died of pneumonia at the age of 67 in 1922. Although one of the less remembered Popes of the twentieth century, he deserves commendation for his humane approach in the world of 1914-1918, which starkly contrasts with that of the other great monarchs and leaders of the time

He's busy..

Pope Benedict XV's Peace Proposal

On August 1, 1917, Pope Benedict XV, issued this peace proposal. It was generally ignored by the warring governments....


interesting. so much to learn.

Quite interesting that - according to today's Italian media - American and German cardinals had lined up against a possible papacy of Joseph Ratzinger.

Wouldn't doubt that, Walter...

I know most of the cardinals are "new", all but two - I gather - being appointed by John Paul II. The general conservative mode of the appointees combined with Ratzinger's long time power position in the church seemed to make this choice of a new pope a foregone conclusion.

Fbaezer gave an excellent breakdown of the stances of various cardinals on another thread.

Oh, Benedict XV doesn't sound nearly as bad as I expected.

Anything important left out of the Wikipedia entry?

They should have known better. Nobody can beat the archbishop of Munich!

This is getting to be like football (soccer, fussball).
No matter how bad they play, the Germans always win.

Ratzinger's - sorry, Benedict XVI's - bibliography

Fußball! Yes!

Tonight, I'm twice 'anti-Bavarian': additionally re cup semi-final (starts in 22 mins)