ABSTRACT
The conclave at the end of August 1914 assembled while war raged in Europe, and the cardinals sought a pope who could serve as a peace missionary. Benedict denounced all the violations of natural law witnessed during the course of the barbaric war, which he deemed suicidal for civilized Europe. Although previous papal pleas to the powers had been unheeded, Benedict refused to remain indifferent or silent in the face of the continuing carnage he judged useless and inadmissible. Despite Benedict's sympathy for Catholic Austria and the religious difficulties encountered by the papacy in France and Russia, he preserved his neutrality. Suspicion of the papacy continued in the allied camp as the Americans and French challenged the Vatican attempt to establish diplomatic relations with China in the summer of 1918. Some feared the pope's conservative agenda would cross the Atlantic to the United States, antagonizing Americans and endangering the progress of an expanding church.
