Just weeks into the Great War, Pope Pius X died. A cardinal for all of three months, Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa joined the resulting conclave to elect a new Pope. The cardinals assembled debated whether to elect an experienced diplomat as pope in order to cope with the war, or to elect a more theologically minded leader. The debate was short. On September 3, 1914, della Chiesa, a proven diplomat, was elected pope by the College of Cardinals. Taking the name Benedict XV, the new Pope immediately began looking for ways to intervene in the conflict. His seven year papacy would be defined by World War I – a war he later referred to “The suicide of civilized Europe.”

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