🕊- 108 years ago, on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour, Europe's cannons were finally laid to rest 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 slaughter that was World War I as the collective suicide of civilized Europe, oblivious to the sad reality that this conflict was merely the first act of a much greater disaster. Rerum Novarum offers prayers to the souls of the fallen.