The Italian prelate Giacomo della Chiesa (1854-1922) reigned as Pope Benedict XV from 1914 to 1922. His pontificate was spent in dealing with the effects of World War I.

Giacomo della Chiesa was born at Pegli on Nov. 21, 1854. He studied at the University of Bologna and the Collegio Capranica in Rome and then became a papal diplomat. After 4 years in Spain he was recalled in 1887 to the Vatican Secretariat of State. In 1907 he was made archbishop of Bologna, in May 1914 he became a cardinal, and on September 3 of that year he was elected pope.

Benedict played no effective role in the war crisis. His predecessor, Pius X, had retired to a position of international isolation. Benedict, while condoning Austria's attack on Serbia as legitimate, tried to remain neutral. However, his belief that the fall of Czarist Russia would provide an opportunity for the expansion of Roman Catholicism weakened his neutral...