The Holy See and the Emergence of the Modern Middle East: Benedict XV's Diplomacy in Greater Syria (1914-1922)
Author: Agnes de Dreuzy
Publisher/Publication: The Catholic University of America Press
DOI/ISBN: 978-0813228495
The book examines the originality of Pope Benedict XV's diplomacy during the First World War and the immediate post-war period in the modern Middle East emerging after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. A thorough exploration of the pontiff's statecraft regarding Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine serves as the case study and emphasizes Pope Benedict's participation in preparing the Catholic Church for an active role in the new world order. After the war, the pontiff, who had acquired a new moral authority, initiated a policy that shifted the Holy See away from its past Eurocentric vision of the world. The volume provides a larger historical context to understanding the current welfare and survival of Christian communities in an overwhelmingly Muslim Middle East.
