Folia Theologica et Canonica 9. 31/23 (2020)

Sacra theologia

POPE BENEDICT XV’S NEGOTIATIONS.

69

(only observations were allowed to add to that by the Central Powers). As one of the catastrophic conclusions, the last Catholic empire in Europe, which seemed many countries - including the Holy See - the guarantee for a geopolitical balance within Europe, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been ceased to exist. Germany had been stigmatized as “the only responsible nation of every act which was done against humanity during the war” - as was emphasized by President Clemenceau during the Versailles Summit. Based on Card. Gasparri’s note this conclusion was: “the voice of imperialism, hegemonic ambitions, commercial egotism and the overpowering nationalism of the winners.”36

The international status of the Vatican’s territorial sovereignty has got suitable guarantee only in 1929 through the “Lateran Treaty”, just a decade before the new war. The “useless massacre” had been repeated from 1939 in much more terrible form as a new cataclysm of many millions peoples’ life.

As closing note I would like to mention again Arnold J. Toynbee’s contemporary prophetic vision37: “(...) That desperate war which has been fought by our generation will be fought again within our lifetime by us and our children.”

Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem. Pázmány Péter Catholic University szuromi. szabolcs@ppke. hu

36 Gasparri, P., Diario, II. 467 (24th April 1919).

37 Toynbee, A. J., The World after the Peace Conference, Being an Epilogue to the “History of Peace Conference of Paris” and a Prologue to the “Survey of International Affairs, 1920- 1923”, Oxford 1925.