The Holy See and the Emergence of the Modern Middle East: Benedict XV’s Diplomacy in Greater Syria (1914-1922) by Agnes de Dreuzy (review)

The pontificate of Benedict XV has been often studied through the lenses of Vatican diplomacy deployed throughout the years of World War I with a particular focus on Europe. Agnes de Dreuzy has shifted the attention to the Middle East, presenting a work on a topic rarely discussed and proposing a positive view of Pope Benedict XV, but, more importantly, showing the agency of Catholic institutions in the Middle East. The Holy See and the Emergence of the Modern Middle East is organized in two main parts and divided into eight chapters. De Dreuzy has relied on a large body of material coming from the Vatican Archives and other Vatican institutions; if on the one hand this is indeed the real strength of this work, on the other hand the absence of non-Vatican material raises a number of questions about the analytical solidity of the author’s arguments.

Geographically confined with the borders of Greater Syria—today’s Lebanon, Syria, Palestine-Israel, and Jordan—the first part of the book deals with the Vatican and Catholic interests in the prewar and war times. The first two chapters set the context, discussing Pope Benedict XV and his attempt to stop the war, and Catholics in the Ottoman Empire. In the long chapter dedicated to wartime foreign policy, De Dreuzy suggests that Benedict XV was promoting a stronger union with the local Catholic churches in order to protect Catholic interests in the region. Though this is indeed well proven by the sources used by the author, questions remain unanswered in relation to the reaction of the local churches. While discussing the protection of clergy and properties, the narrative does not offer any hint of the conditions of the local population—a few pages are dedicated to humanitarian assistance, but for the most part this is a debate about the competition between Catholic and Protestant institutions. While the first part of this work is certainly interesting and offers the Vatican perspective of the Middle Eastern wartime events, the omission of some crucial secondary sources and more importantly of other archival materials weakens the overall argument and unintentionally seems to reinforce the view of a general lack of Vatican understanding of the region.

The second part is dedicated to the postwar era covering the years from 1917 to 1922. De Dreuzy has brought to general attention the apostolic letter Maximum Illud showing how this document radically changed the role of the Catholic Latin Church in the Middle East as formation of local clergy, respect of local cultures, and end of missionary nationalism were made a priority; nevertheless it is important to say that many in the Church disapproved of this approach. De Dreuzy then suggests that Benedict XV in some way anticipated the decolonization era, though it may not be too far-fetched, there is not much evidence supporting this. The two chapters dedicated to the Holy See and its relations with Syria and Palestine are indeed interesting but, as mentioned earlier, the lack of local or other international sources and a limited choice of secondary readings have reduced the analytical value and potential of this work. For instance, when discussing the Holy See and Zionism, it is immediately apparent that Vatican sources alone cannot answer the multitude of questions that may be asked on such a significant topic.

The Holy See and the Emergence of the Modern Middle East is indeed a welcome contribution, one that shows the amount of work that still needs to be done in order to understand the formation of the modern Middle East. De Dreuzy should be praised for her work in the Vatican Archives and the new perspective offered to readers and scholars: which is one step more in the...