The papal conclave of 1914 resulted in the election of Pope Benedict XV, who would reign during the intensely difficult period from 1914-1922. When the First World War broke out less than two months before Benedict’s election, many believed it would be a short, decisive conflict. But by the end of 1914 the sides had settled into trench warfare, with all of its horrors. Benedict’s first encyclical, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, was a call for an end to the war. He pointed to the fact that the nations involved “are the greatest and wealthiest nations of the earth,” who have armed themselves with “the most awful weapons modern military science has devised,” and who “strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror.” The pope pointed out the cruel irony of the age, in which Christian religion had been set aside in favor of secular ideologies promoting the brotherhood of mankind. “Never perhaps was there more talking about the brotherhood of men than there is today; in fact, men do not hesitate to proclaim that striving after brotherhood is one of the greatest gifts of modern civilization, [while] ignoring the teaching of the Gospel, and setting aside the work of Christ and of His Church.” The effect of this, he argued, was that “never was there less brotherly activity amongst men than at the present moment.”
Benedict’s repeated attempts to broker peace agreements were repeatedly rebuffed by the combatants, who held the Church in suspicion. Three years into the war, on May 5, 1917, the Holy Father wrote an impassioned plea to the Mother of God for help: “To Mary, then, who is the Mother of Mercy and omnipotent by grace, let loving and devout appeal go up from every corner of the earth…. Let it bear to Her the anguished cry of mothers and wives, the wailing of innocent little ones, the sighs of every generous heart: that Her most tender and benign solicitude may be moved and the peace we ask for be obtained for our agitated world.”
On May 13, just 8 days after the pope wrote these words, three peasant children experienced the first of their six encounters with the Blessed Mother at Fatima, Portugal. She told them that the war would end. But she emphasized the importance of praying the rosary for the salvation of souls, for renewed faith in her Son, and devotion to her Immaculate Heart, if the world would avoid another, worse conflict. 75 years later, John Paul II, after surviving an assassination attempt on May 13, 1981, wrote about the Blessed Mother’s concern for her children. “In light of a mother’s love we understand the whole message of the Lady of Fatima. The greatest obstacle to man’s journey towards God is sin, perseverance in sin, and, finally, denial of God. The deliberate blotting out of God from the world of human thought [and] the whole of man’s earthly activity. The rejection of God by man.” This attitude, said the pope, leads to our destruction. And it is for this reason that our Blessed Mother at Fatima appeared, as any concerned mother would, with a strong word of repentance for her earthly children – that, for the sake of peace in our world and in our homes, we might remember God again and desire the salvation that her Son won for us by His sacrifice. The feast day of Our Lady of Fatima is this Tuesday, May 13.
posted 5/10/25
The Parish of St. Cecilia-St. Gabriel 