Appeals to Wilson to avoid the United States' entry into war

The war was a test of American Catholic loyalty. While Benedict XV may have been sympathetic toward Austria-Hungary with its large Catholic population, his overtures for peace were construed in the United States as favouring only the Central Powers. Woodrow Wilson was not well-disposed toward Catholics. In this context, Cardinal James Gibbons, described by the anti-modernists as an ‘old-style liberal American’, at the time Archbishop of Baltimore, who represented one of the most prominent figures in the Catholic hierarchy in the United States, was entrusted with conveying the papal messages for peace but he also maintained an independent position. In general, he supported Wilson’s attempts at mediation but after the sinking of the Lusitania, he recommended that Americans not travel on ships owned by the countries at war; in August, he carried out Gasparri’s instructions and informed Wilson of the German assurance that they would not sink enemy passenger ships without prior warning. Even after the American entry into the war, Gibbons continued to act as intermediary between the Vatican and the United States government. In August 1917, he sought to use his influence indirectly to have the President cooperate with Benedict’s new peace initiative that sought to make the belligerent nations return to the status quo ante bellum. After the United States had declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917, he urged Wilson to cooperate with the Pope in seeking to detach the Empire from Germany. He was also faced with the dilemma of American Catholicism of whether to display loyalty to Rome or to the United States.