Previous Benedict rejected orthodoxy
His choice of name is intriguing, because the last Pope Benedict, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, subtly repudiated the strict Vatican orthodoxy practised under his predecessor Pius X, said former Vatican diplomat John-Peter Pham.
Benedict XV also tried in vain to end World War I, opened the Vatican to international diplomacy and sent so much wartime aid to Turkey that Istanbul erected a statue to him, he said.
