Tomorrow, July 28, is the 100th anniversary since Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, effectively starting World War I, which involved more countries and caused greater destruction than any other war except World War II.

The conflict was sparked by an assassin’s bullets a month earlier, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo. However, its chief causes were the rise of nationalism, a build-up of military might, competition for colonies, and a system of military alliances.

The main European powers that plunged into the fight were the greatest and wealthiest nations of the earth of the time, well provided with the most powerful weapons military science was able to produce. Each side expected quick victory. Yet, the war continued for four years until November 11, 1918. By then, nearly 10 million troops had lost their lives.

Just three months into the war, on November 1, 1914, Pope Benedict XV issued an encyclical appealing for peace and warning about the great evils the war was generating: “There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter; day by day the earth is drenched with newly-shed blood, and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain.”

The Pope asked: “Who would imagine as we see them thus filled with hatred of one another, that they are all of one common stock, all of the same nature, all members of the same human society?”

Countless troops were engaged in furious battle, with the “sad cohorts of war, sorrow and distress” swooping down upon every city and every home, increasing day by day the enormous number of widows and orphans, with the poor reduced to abject misery.

Benedict XV pleaded to all the nations to quickly resume cordial relations. He never ceased to repeat exhortations and propose ways of agreement. He pleaded to those concerned to open, by divine aid, a path to a just, honourable and lasting peace.

When the road to peace was opened with an armistice which suspended the slaughter and devastation, the Pope continued to insist that peace must also be received into the hearts of men.

In another encyclical, issued on May 23, 1920, he warned that there can be no stable peace or lasting treaties unless there is a return of mutual charity to appease hate and banish enmity.

Peace requires a persistent, patient, strong and intelligent dialogue

Benedict XV’s outlook on and after World War I can be considered as the foundation stone of the work of the Popes against war and in the promotion of peace as everyone’s responsibility during the tragic 20th century.

Pius XII, before the prospect of a second conflict, on August 24, 1939, let out a loud cry to those in charge of the nations: “Nothing is lost with peace. Everything can be lost with war.” Thereafter, John XXIII dedicated his last encyclical to peace, Pacem in Terris, while Paul VI in his speech at the United Nations, called out: “War never again!” (October 4, 1965). John Paul II, on his part, inserted himself in the footsteps of his predecessors and strived to make a contribution to peace in the world as one of his pastoral duties.

This commitment for unity and peace for the human family was continued by Pope Benedict XVI and is being emphasised ever more by Pope Francis, who preaches that peace requires a persistent, patient, strong and intelligent dialogue, by which nothing is lost. It is a commitment for the mutual understanding needed to establish and sustain the conditions for a better future for all, ensured by an authentic social development, respectful of the dignity of every human being.

The message that emerges envisages true peace grounded on the sturdy foundations of justice and love. It is a kind of justice which recognises the legitimate rights of the weak as well as those of the strong and a love which keeps men from falling into error through excessive concern for their own interests. Thus, each person’s rights may be safeguarded without the rights of others being forgotten or violated.

cphbuttigieg@gmail.com

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