L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014 www.italoamericano.com L'Italo-Americano 11 ANTHONY DI RENZO "Il Piccoletto" Pasquino honors the Pope of Peace On December 24, 1914, a dejected Pope Benedict XV cel- ebrated midnight mass in St. Peter's Basilica. His efforts to secure a Christmas truce had f a i l e d . A 4 0 0 - m i l e t r e n c h s t r e t c h e d f r o m t h e B e l g i a n coast to the Swiss border. Some British and German troops near Ypres had stopped killing each other long enough to play soc- cer in No Man's Land. Most soldiers, however, were quite willing to butcher one another on Christ's birthday, with the f u l l b l e s s i n g o f f l a g - w a v i n g clerics. "May the guns fall silent at least on the night the angels sang!" Benedict had pleaded. He might as well have preached chastity at an orgy. "Why not Easter?" scoffed Joseph Joffre, C o m m a n d e r - i n - C h i e f o f t h e French army. "Why not Yom K i p p u r ? " B e n e d i c t ' s a i d e s advised him to ignore this out- b u r s t . O b v i o u s l y , M a r s h a l l Joffre had never recovered from the Dreyfus affair. During Christmas Eve ser- vice, the Curia scrutinized the Pope's performance. Beneath Bernini's bronze and gold bal- dacchino, he was as gawky as a c u r a t e a t h i s f i r s t m a s s . H e sighed and fumbled at the altar. H i s s h o u l d e r s s l u m p e d . H i s h a n d s s h o o k . T h e a c o l y t e s e x c h a n g e d e m b a r r a s s e d g l a n c e s . N e v e r h a d H i s Holiness seemed so frail and small. The faithful called Benedict Il Piccoletto, the Little Guy. T a i l o r s h a d t o p r e p a r e t h e smallest of the three papal cas- socks at his September 7 elec- t i o n . R a i s e d i n a n o b l e G e n o v e s e f a m i l y , G i a c o m o della Chiesa was dignified in bearing and courtly in manners, but his appearance was hardly pontifical. Sallow and stunted, he was cursed with matted hair and buck teeth. His eyes and n o s e , c h i n a n d n e c k w e r e crooked. Milkmen blamed rick- ets to boost sales. A contractor compared the new pope to a carpenter's ruler: "You could fold him up in sections and put him in your pocket." W h a t e v e r h i s p h y s i c a l defects, Benedict was the only world leader who realized the grim implications of the Guns o f A u g u s t . I n A d B e a t i s s i m i Apostolorum, his first encycli- c a l p u b l i s h e d o n A l l S a i n t s Day, 1914, he called the Great War "the suicide of civilized Europe." The West's most pow- erful and prosperous nations had provided themselves with the most awful weapons mod- e r n m i l i t a r y s c i e n c e h a d devised. "They strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror," said Benedict. "There is no limit to the measure of ruin and slaughter. Day by day, t h e e a r t h i s d r e n c h e d w i t h newly shed blood and covered with the bodies of the wounded and the slain." Secular authorities ignored h i m , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n R o m e , where demagogues proclaimed that only violence would save civilization from communism and canned ravioli. Less than four months after the Pope's f i r s t C h r i s t m a s m a s s , I t a l y d e c l a r e d w a r o n A u s t r i a - Hungary. Nearly 700,000 men would die at the front. H o r r o r s a n d p o r t e n t s f o l - lowed. The Ottomans launched the Armenian Genocide. The Madonna appeared at Fatima. T h e R u s s i a n R e v o l u t i o n exploded. Before the disaster of Caporetto, a desperate Vatican issued a seven-point peace plan. Benedict proposed an imme- diate ceasefire, a lowering of armament stocks, guaranteed safety on the seas, international arbitration, and compensation for confiscated property. Italian politicians accused him of con- n i v i n g t o r e s t o r e t h e P a p a l States. Foreign leaders suspect- e d h i s n e u t r a l i t y . B o t h t h e Allies and the Central Powers w e r e c o n v i n c e d t h a t h e w a s biased towards the enemy. W h e n t h e w a r e n d e d , P r e s i d e n t W o o d r o w W i l s o n , whose Fourteen Points plagia- rized Benedict's plan, kept the P o p e a w a y f r o m V e r s a i l l e s . W h a t p l a c e w a s t h e r e f o r a pacifist at a peace conference? For that matter, what place was there for a saint at the Vatican? B e n e d i c t w a s n o t o r i o u s l y generous, helping poor Roman families with cash gifts from his p r i v a t e r e v e n u e s . W h e n t h e money ran out, prelates instruct- ed petitioners at papal audi- e n c e s n o t t o m e n t i o n t h e i r financial woes. During the war, Benedict had donated millions in church funds to the Save the Children Foundation. All that remained in the Vatican trea- s u r y w a s t h e e q u i v a l e n t o f $19,000. The bankers would have poisoned him, if he had not fallen ill. On December 21, 1921, the anniversary of his ordination, Benedict celebrated mass with the nuns at St. Martha Hospice. While awaiting his driver in the r a i n , h e c a u g h t t h e f l u . Pneumonia developed. After a m o n t h o f a g o n y , h e d i e d o n J a n u a r y 2 2 , 1 9 2 2 a n d w a s interned in the Vatican grottos. Six years later, a monument was erected in St. Peter's. Benedict's statue prays in front of a bronze relief of the Madonna and Child. Wearing a simple skullcap rather than the triple tiara, the Pope of Peace kneels over a casket of a fallen soldier. His face is careworn but kind. Baby Jesus waves an olive branch over a world gone up in flames. P a s q u i n o ' s s e c r e t a r y i s Anthony Di Renzo, associate professor of writing at Ithaca College. You may reach him at direnzo@ithaca.edu. Pope Benedict XV was the only world leader who condemned the Great War and he called it "the suicide of civilized Europe"

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