THE CHURCH DOESN'T HAVE SHEEP ON BOTH SIDES OF THIS ONE:

Last Benedict shepherded Catholic countries in World War (STEPHEN MCGINTY, 4/20/05, The Scotsman)

THE choice of papal names is often scrutinised for hints on what the new pontiff might have admired in previous popes with those same names.

As Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has taken the name Benedict XVI.

His predecessor, Benedict XV, who was pontiff from 1914 to 1922, had the task of providing leadership for Catholic countries arrayed on opposite sides of the First World War, each claiming a just war and praying for victory.

He declared neutrality, and made repeated protests against weapons such as poison gas, a move which angered both sides. Benedict XV strove to aid the innocent victims of war and offered a seven-point peace plan. It failed, but some of his proposals were included in Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the US president’s wartime call for peace in January 1918.