Your feature about the role of Catholic chaplains during the Great War (“With God at their side”, 2 August) is a moving and important part of how the Catholic community should mark the centenary of the conflict. However, there is a danger that focusing simply on the heroism of Catholic chaplains will keep us as Catholics in what we could call a comfort zone. No one can cavil with what we say about them: all will acclaim their heroism and that of the troops to whom they ministered. But it is surely just as important that we should share the witness against the war of Pope Benedict XV, elected a few weeks after it started. From the very beginning of his pontificate, he condemned the conflict and called on the warring nations to stop fighting. In 1916 he memorably dubbed the war