[sinkspur]

I'm sure you are probably right. The press consistently misquotes him.

The press misquotes him, sometimes.

In regards to war and peace, the Pope has, for 25 years, advocated that the United Nations be the vehicle. So it is not likely he was misquoted in calling for a "new international order" with the UN at its head, to head off American unilateralism.

I'm still waiting for John Paul II to be publicly grateful to God for the liberation of the Iraqi people.

[Desdemona]

I still don't trust Reuters.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the UN is useless without American firepower. And it is approaching time for the charter to be revoked. Yes, we were acting truly under a UN resolution, but let's face it, we did it despite the rest of the world. Why messages from the Vatican ignore this fact is not answerable.

I think the pope is right about one thing - we can pray for peace. The job needs to be finished before peace comes, he must understand. People like Hussein, Hitler, Stalin, etc., will be with us forever and, unfortunately, it takes force to rid the world of their tyranny. That doesn't mean we can't pray for peace.

[BlackElk]

Happy New Year, Deacon:

Sharing even with you, as most American Catholics do, a deep skepticism and disagreement with JP II on these transitory matters of foreign policy, it is necessary yet again to point out that the real motive of your consistent pope-bashing is JP II's unwillingness to adhere to the in-house-revolutionary blatherings of those AmChurchians, like yourself, who dissent on celibacy, support lavender rights in the public square, democracy or anarchy in the pews, and most forms of anti-papal insolence in our times, in spite of burrowing into minor orders as a deacon.

As actual Roman Catholics eagerly await the next bishop to be appointed to the missionary territory of Fort Worth (the Rio Linda of AmChurch) who may restore actual Catholicism to Delaney's museum of curious non-Catholic idiosyncracies, we also eagerly seek your deservedly humble obedience to the Supreme Pontiff and submission to the Teaching Magisterium of the Church without Modernist reservations.

[desertcry]

You are right on, the Pope's perspective on the whole Iraq issue is highly skewed. He has totally ignored the liberation of the Iraqi people from the cruelty of saddam.