First World War: ” “Christians’ checkmate ” “

The year 2014 commemorates the centenary of the First World War, celebrated on various occasions throughout Europe. On the other hand even in the Catholic world does devote enough tribute to the encyclical of Pope Benedict XV, “Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum”, of 1 November 1914. Yet this text accurately underlined the stakes for Christians in a devastating defeat that tended to deny what the Gospel represents for humanity. This war, opposing Christian nations, bore all the signs of what was doomed to be a dreadful massacre. For years, European nations were preparing to face a conflict: psychological preparation was carried out through a systematic propaganda against the neighbouring nation, defined as the “enemy”, and through the school that was to train future soldiers and mothers, wives and sisters of soldiers; economic and military preparation to place all the efforts in the war. After the attack in Sarajevo, the process that led to the war became irreversible after just a few weeks. Europe heard few words of peace, and many words of hate and warmongering. The men of peace were isolated, excluded, even murdered, as the socialist leader Jean Jaures in France. In his last speech delivered July 25, 1914, he denounced the responsibility of all States, also of France, and the abomination would have been the modern war. And even socialist internationalism was held in check. But the fraternal dimension that extends beyond national borders, typical of Christianity, was also kept in check. The encyclical of November 1914, the papal appeals to peace repeated throughout the conflict, along with the diplomatic efforts of the Holy See, were not welcomed by Catholic crowds who had joined the “sacred unions” and the war efforts overall. The same can be said for Protestants: the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom, who launched a major cry for peace in December 1917, went unheard in the world of the Reformation. The nationalist spirit was stronger than the Gospel. In all the belligerent countries, Christians wanted to prove that they were “good citizens”, true patriots, and respond with bloodshed to the allegations of militant secularists. In France, the religious stripped and expelled from the country in 1903, returned en masse bearing arms. The “Great War” was not only an imperialistic clash. Under certain aspects it also was a religious war, because Christian religions were mobilized at the service of the war, for the blessing of weapons and to boost the morale of the troops sent to a “senseless slaughter”, in the expression of the Pope. Until the very end, until 11 November 1918, the voices that called for peace remained unheeded. The problem was that even when it came to the peace treaties, the principles of revenge prevailed: humiliation of the vanquished, denounced as responsible for the war, reparations that would have ensured a long-lasting condition of misery (“Germany shall pay “, it was said), the dismantling of the multinational empires where people lived together in favour of new States exacerbated by nationalism. The peace of Clemenceau was a disastrous peace, which was designed to maintain grudges, hatred and fear of the other. A new setback for Christians: the voice of Benedict XV who denounced a peace based on a “forest of bayonets”, once again was not heard. Yet, little by little, with the awareness of the human and material disaster of the war, new voices were raised, supported by the Magisterium of Pope Pius XI, whereby the commitment to peace became a priority of his pontificate, distinguishing the love that is due to one’s homeland, a positive value, from annihilating nationalisms. Gradually, in various countries, some Christians started to carry out a reading of the Gospel as the bearer of another vision of international relations: the love of the neighbour had to extend to peoples. But unfortunately it was necessary to experience another frightening tragedy, World War II – again the spiral of nationalism and hatred – until Christian statesmen could share a different vision of Europe, based on reconciliation, especially on the identification of a common destiny. True peace would never be based on peace treaties, always fragile and dependent on the goodwill of governments. From now on it would be based new forms of solidarity. The focus was to share coal and steel, products which provide the basis of armaments. This led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951), the beginning of a new European journey. “A united Europe was not achieved and we had the war”, declared Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, on 9 May 1950. And on 11 November, the European bishops on pilgrimage to Verdun, said: “If at the dawn of the twentieth century, the destinies of nations in Europe had been shared, the first world war would not have broken out”. This statement underlines the responsibility of Christians and their necessary vigilance in the face of nationalistic passions. Jean-