During his pontificate, relations with Italy improved as well, as Benedict XV now permitted Catholic politicians led by Don Luigi Sturzo to participate in national Italian politics.

[citation needed] Della Chiesa's association with Rampolla, the architect of Pope Leo XIII's (1878–1903) foreign policy, made his position in the Secretariat of State under the new pontificate somewhat uncomfortable.

Therefore, in his capacity as Archbishop, on the outbreak of World War I, della Chiesa made a speech on the Church's position and duties, emphasizing the need for neutrality, promoting peace and the easing of suffering.

Benedict XV was crowned in the Sistine Chapel on 6 September 1914, and, also as a form of protest due to the Roman question, there was no ceremony for the formal possession of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

The decade-long campaign waged against Modernism cast a cloud over the conclave, and also ensured on the part of the deceased pontiff that there were fewer moderate and progressive cardinals in the Sacred College.

From a diary that recorded the events of the conclave, "the papal habit that was chosen was the small one, but lacking in some part, and being a little long, it was adapted with clothespin pins, and raised and covered with a gold tassel sash".

[28] These allegations were rejected by the Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri, who wrote on 4 March 1916 that the Holy See is completely impartial and does not favor the allied side.

[30] In addition to his efforts in the field of international diplomacy Pope Benedict also tried to bring about peace through Christian faith, as he published a special prayer in 1915 to be spoken by Catholics throughout the world.

[43] After the war, Benedict focused the Vatican's activities on overcoming famine and misery in Europe and establishing contacts and relations with the many new states which were created because of the demise of Imperial Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany.

He reacted with horror to the strongly anti-religious policies adopted by Vladimir Lenin's government along with the bloodshed and widespread famine which occurred during the subsequent Russian Civil War.

Relations with Italy improved as well under Benedict XV, who de facto reversed the stiff anti-Italian policy of his predecessors by allowing Catholics to participate in national elections as well.

[50] Benedict XV also attempted to improve relations with the anti-clerical Republican government of France, and canonized the French national heroine Saint Joan of Arc.

In the mission territories of the Third World, he emphasized the necessity of training native priests to quickly replace the European missionaries, and founded the Pontifical Oriental Institute and the Coptic College in the Vatican.

On 11 June 1921, he wrote to the Polish episcopate, warning against political misuses of spiritual power, urging again for peaceful coexistence with neighbouring peoples, stating that "love of country has its limits in justice and obligations".

[60] On 20 November, when German Cardinal Adolf Bertram announced a papal ban on all political activities of clergymen, calls for Ratti's expulsion climaxed in Warsaw.

[66] A source of contention, despite firm denials by the Holy See in 1933, is the allegation that Benedict XV, in a private interview with Count George Noble Plunkett in mid-April 1916, imparted an Apostolic blessing to the Irish Republic just two weeks before the Easter Rising.

When L'Osservatore Romano denied these claims in 1933, the paper said that "the news was entirely unfounded" and that the actions of Benedict XV were "in open contradiction to the well-known gentleness of the late Pontiff and to his most lively desire for peace and the prevention of any further effusion of blood".

[67] In internal Church affairs, Benedict XV reiterated Pius X's condemnation of Modernist scholars and the errors in modern philosophical systems in Ad beatissimi Apostolorum.

In addition to the encyclicals mentioned, he issued In hac tanta on St. Boniface (14 May 1919), Paterno iam diu on the Children of Central Europe (24 November 1919), Spiritus Paraclitus on St. Jerome (September 1920), Principi Apostolorum Petro on St. Ephram the Syrian (5 October 1920), Annus iam plenus also on Children in Central Europe (1 December 1920), Sacra propediem on the Third Order of St. Francis (6 January 1921), In praeclara summorum on Dante (30 April 1921), and Fausto appetente die on St. Dominic (29 June 1921).

[citation needed] His Apostolic Exhortations include Ubi primum (8 September 1914), Allorché fummo chiamati (28 July 1915) and Dès le début (1 August 1917).

[citation needed] Ad beatissimi Apostolorum is an encyclical of Benedict XV given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the Feast of All Saints on 1 November 1914, in the first year of his pontificate.

Benedict described the combatants as the greatest and wealthiest nations of the earth, stating that "they are well-provided with the most awful weapons modern military science has devised, and they strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror.

"[74] In light of the senseless slaughter, the pope pleaded for "peace on earth to men of good will" (Luke 2:14), insisting that there are other ways and means whereby violated rights can be rectified.

"[77] Materialism, nationalism, racism, and class warfare are the characteristics of the age instead, so Benedict XV described: The encyclical Humani generis redemptionem, from 15 June 1917, deals with blatant ineffectiveness of Christian preaching.

According to Benedict XV, there are more preachers of the Word than ever before, but "in the state of public and private morals as well as the constitutions and laws of nations, there is a general disregard and forgetfulness of the supernatural, a gradual falling away from the strict standard of Christian virtue, and that men are slipping back into the shameful practices of paganism.

[citation needed] The pope created 32 cardinals in five consistories, elevating men into the cardinalate such as Pietro La Fontaine (1916) and Michael von Faulhaber (1921); he reserved two in pectore but later published one name (Adolf Bertram).

When he was short on money, those who would be admitted to an audience would often be instructed by prelates not to mention their financial woes, as Benedict would inevitably feel guilty that he could not help the needy at the time.

[97] Benedict XV celebrated Mass with the nuns at the Domus Sanctae Marthae in early January 1922 and while he waited for his driver out in the rain he fell ill with the flu which turned into pneumonia.

Cardinal Gasparri arrived at Benedict XV's bedside at 5:30 am since the pope had fallen into a coma yet again (at 5:18 am he said that "the catastrophe is imminent"), with Doctor Cherubini pronouncing the pontiff's death at 6:00 am.

[104] He praised him as a Marian Pope who promoted the devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes,[105] for his encyclicals Ad beatissimi Apostolorum, Humani generis redemptionem, Quod iam diu, and Spiritus Paraclitus, and for the codification of Canon Law.