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I agree with the assessment that this will act as a counter to the assertion that this is a holy war between Christians and Muslims.

I don't believe that the Pope should step down, by any stretch. Just think about how scandalous it was when Jesus told his disciples to basically stop worrying about the Romans and start worrying about their neighbors and themselves and the Kingdom of God.

I'm an orthodox Catholic and I have a hard time swallowing the notion of letting Iraq off the hook.

But this guy (the Pope) is at a spiritual level I can't even hope to attain. That said, all we can do is pray for a better understanding of what the Pope is asking for. I don't understand it, and part of me doesn't want to understand it. I believe this is a just war. I believe that we are confronting evil. I believe that war with the prospect (nay, certainty) of driving Saddam from power is 100 times more humane than leaving him in his insidious seat of power to rape, torture, and drain life and soul from his own subjects...

I think it may be time for JP to step down; someone else must be pulling the strings over there. This certainly doesn't sound like the same Pope who joined President Reagan and PM Thatcher and faced down the Warsaw Pact leaders.

Those are my sentiments exactly. I believe people surrounding the Pope are doing this for whatever reason. Anyone can see watching the Pope that he is a very ill man. If it was 20 years ago, this Pope would never stand by the Butcher of Baghdad. What bothers me is what his stance is doing to the men and women of the military who are Catholic and in the Gulf by embolding Saddam as the French have done.

The Iraqi people need liberated from 37 years of tyranny. I am sorry that the people in the Vatican calling the shots don't see it that way. Appeasement does not work and just makes a tyrant become stronger.

This is not Catholic bashing either but an agreement with the poster that I believe the Pope is not the same man he was 20 years ago. Do believe that some people on this forum are to quick to label Freepers as Catholic bashing when they disagree with the stand of the Pope. When the Pope, the head of Anglican Church in England, National Council of Churches here in the United States or any other religion inserts themselves in foreign policy of the United States, then as a citizen I have a right to criticize that decision without being labeled a Catholic basher or any other religion basher!