108 years ago, on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour, the guns of Europe were laid down for a brief moment after four years of total warfare. More than a dozen million Europeans, brothers and cousins, sons and fathers, died in the name of their republics, kingdoms and empires alike.
Pope Benedict XV accurately described the carnage of World War I as the collective suicide of civilized Europe, oblivious to the grim reality that this conflict was only the first act of a much greater disaster.
Rerum Novarum offers prayers for the souls of the fallen.