Exhortation "Dum Europa", of August 2, 1914, for Peace in Europe - The Final Words of Pope Saint Pius X

Le sang injustement répandu

est long à pénétrer dans la terre.

Paul Claudel

June 1915

The Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia of July 23, 1914, caught most of Europe by surprise. 

Vatican diplomacy, which had been weakened since the fall of Rome in 1870, was also shocked by the fast pace of events, since political assassinations of major figures were not exactly a rarity in the

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