Chicago Studies Fall/Winter 2019/2020 58:2

The New Visions and Directions of 1919: An Assessment 100 Years Later

By Rev. Martin Zielinski, Ph.D. Note: This article is based on a talk given at Saint Mary Seminary in Wycliffe, Ohio for the Mullen Lecture.

Introduction Historians love to celebrate centennial events. It gives them a chance to organize a conference, hold a symposium, or write an article. This year – 2019 – has a number of interesting centennial celebrations. For example, the 18th Amendment establishing prohibition was ratified on January 16, 1919. Also, on June 4, 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. It was ratified by the states the following year. Sadly, 1919 is also remembered for the World Series scandal of the “Black” Sox. In teaching Church History for over thirty years at the Mundelein seminary, I know that certain historical events have such a dramatic impact that a paradigm shift takes place. The mentality of people, the structure of society, the forms of government, religious beliefs, and the focus of culture change because of these events. For example, Europe was different after the Protestant Reformation and after the French Revolution. So, was the world different after 1919.

1919 was a year of paradigm shifts for the world because of the Versailles Peace Conference, because of the publication of the Bishops’ Letter on Social Reconstruction, and because of the promulgation of the encyclical Maximum illud. A new vision for international relations was promoted at Paris. A new role for the American bishops was defined by their letter on social reconstruction. A new model for Church evangelization was offered by the encyclical of Pope Benedict XV. Versailles Peace Conference Since the topic of the peace conference is too large to adequately cover for this article, I am limiting my comments to the role of Pope Benedict XV before and during the conference and American Catholic opinion on the conference as expressed in the articles of America magazine. 1 Two months after his election as the successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XV issued his first encyclical – Ad Beatissimi apostolorum – in which he offers his view of the current conflict. He wrote: 3. The combatants are the greatest and wealthiest nations of the earth; what wonder, then, if, well provided with the most awful weapons modern military science has devised, they strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror. There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter; day by day the earth is drenched with newly-shed blood, and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain. . . .Yet, while with numberless troops the furious battle is engaged, the sad cohorts of war, sorrow and distress swoop down upon every city and every home; day by day the mighty number of widows and orphans increases, and with the interruption of communications, trade is at a standstill; agriculture is abandoned; the arts are