This is a tough one. It is always “deeper” than what is revealed publicly; we’ll never truly know what goes on at the diplomatic level.
One angle I have is this: The White House wanted the Pope’s approval on this in a VERY major way. They have sufficient access to put their “best reason/case for war” on his table. I am sure they have tried their very best. JPII is not approving for who knows what, and for how many reasons? It is possible the Holy Father is wrong, but if they had presented some real major-compelling evidence, why would he say no?
Prayer (as always) is the best we can do.
First, most Americans are familiar only with the Roman rite of the Roman Catholic Church but there are numerous other smaller rites with long traditions of their own. They are all subject to the pope. One of these is the Chaldean Rite which is headquartered in Iraq.
Second, the pope has the support of most Muslim nations in his resistance to and opposition to abortion and other social issue atrocities. Remember that the Vatican is a nation-state as well as the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope is effectively the elected monarch of Vatican City. The Vatican participates usefully in a leadership role with Muslims and poor Third World countries in resisiting those UN "Population Control" initiatives which always look like they were cooked up by Her Satanic Majesty, the junior senator from New York who sometimes poses as apparent consort to the Arkansas Antichrist when he is not otherwise engaged.
If the article upon which this thread is based is accurately quoting the Catechism, there is plenty of room for the long-overdue attack on Iraq to be regarded as a "just war." So Damn Insane has already inflicted far worse damage on his own people than we will and the state of modern weaponry or biological and chemical weapons is such that we need not wait in leisurely fashion for today's Bella Abzugs and Barbra Streisands to "be convinced" or for the annihilation of ten million or so Americans by biological warfare before sending So Damn Insane and his thuggish buds to their father below.
Let the games begin, already!!!