As war clouds darkened the coming of a new year, Pope John Paul II joined other church leaders in asking that a U.S.-led war be avoided with Iraq.

In a year-end speech to Vatican officials, he warned against conflicts “that risk exploding again with renewed virulence.”

In his subsequent Christmas message, he asked that the world not “yield to mistrust, suspicion and discouragement, even though the tragic reality of terrorism feeds uncertainties and fears.” (For more on the pope and his pleas for peace, see story, Page 11.)

Although the pope did not mention Iraq by name, it clearly appeared to be on his mind as he cautioned against igniting a new and avoidable war. In the days before Christmas, a growing chorus of Vatican officials warned against resolving problems with Iraq through war.

Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican’s equivalent of a foreign minister, said the United States has no right to decide by itself whether Iraq should be attacked if it failed to comply with U.N. resolutions that required it to abandon its weapons of mass destruction.

In the United States, meanwhile, an 11-member delegation of priests, nuns and lay Catholics called for peace after returning from a two-week visit to Iraq, and an Iraqi-born bishop said a U.S. preventative war would be unjust.

Also, many Americans, including two Evanston residents, spent Christmas with Iraqi Christians on the eve of what appeared to be an almost certain conflict.

As late as Dec. 29, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States had not decided yet what course of action to take, but that the U.S. government was ready for military action. Powell said U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq should be given the time necessary to check out whether Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.

At the same time, the United States continued its military buildup of troops, ships and aircraft near Iraq.

In Iraq were Evanston residents Gabe Huck and his wife, Theresa Kubacek, who spent their third of the last four Christmases in Iraq. They were part of the Iraq Peace journey and visited Catholic-run institutions, and other members of Iraq’s Christian community.

Huck is former director of Liturgy Training Publications who has been volunteering with Voices in the Wilderness, a Chicago-based organization that has sent volunteers to Iraq bearing gifts of food and medicine since sanctions were imposed in 1992.

Kubasak is a member of St. Nicholas Parish, Evanston. She described the scene before Christmas: “Last night we celebrated liturgy at the church across the street from St. Raphael Hospital in Baghdad. Our friends the Chaldean sisters were there as well as some sisters from Mother Teresa’s order. We sang, ‘We shall stay awake and pray at all times, ready to welcome Christ, the Prince of Justice. We shall set aside all fears and worries, ready to welcome Christ, the Prince of Peace.’”

Outside Kubasek said she mingled with the people in the streets. “It’s great to be in ‘the cradle of civilization.’ There’s a kid named Hassan out in front of our hotel shining shoes so his family will have enough money to buy food. He’s only eight years old.”

Looming is a Jan. 27 deadline for the more than 100 U.N. inspectors to submit their final report. They were sent Nov. 27, after a four-year absence, to see if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has complied with 1991 U.N. resolutions at the end of the Gulf War to destroy his weapons of mass destruction, including possible chemical and biological arms.

The Bush administration has expressed fears that Iraq plans to use such weapons or pass them along to terrorist groups for action against the United States. The administration has argued that a preventative war may be necessary.

The U.S. government also has consistently criticized Iraqi statements that it is complying with U.N. resolutions and has been highly skeptical that Iraq is fully cooperating with the U.N. inspectors. Many world leaders have expressed concerns that the United States is planning military action once the U.N. final report is issued.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said war would provoke a humanitarian disaster.

“There’s even a risk if there are bacteriological and chemical weapons (in Iraq) that people there will die because of an attack,” he said in a Dec. 27 interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.

Lubbers said the United Nations must deal firmly with Hussein but not forget that the goal is to disarm him.

Iraqi-born Chaldean Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, now living in Michigan, said the United States should let the U.N. inspectors do their job. He said that the United States must be able to provide proof that Iraq is in violation before deciding on war.

A U.S. attack on Iraq “would not be a just war at all; it lacks all the criteria for a just war,” he said.

The bishop asked all U.S. bishops to speak out strongly “from the pulpit, every bishop in his cathedral, to tell the people we should not go to war in Iraq at this time.”

Bishop Ibrahim is head of the Michigan-based Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle for Chaldean Catholics in the eastern United States. There are about 160,000 Chaldean Catholics in the United States. The Chaldean church traces its origins to Iraq and is based there. The 700,000 Chaldean Catholics in Iraq make up about 75 percent of the country’s Christians.

The 11-member Catholic delegation that visited Iraq Dec. 8-21 appealed to Americans to “look into the eyes of the people of Iraq” and see “people who share our hopes and dreams for a peaceful world.”

A delegation statement said the U.S. government was ready to sacrifice innocent Iraqis as “collateral damage” in “an unconscionable war.” It favored cooperation with the United Nations to build peace.

Delegation members said the United States was inconsistent in not making the same demands of other countries, such as Iran and Israel, that have weapons of mass destruction.

Archbishop Tauran in a newspaper interview published Dec. 23 asked the international community to do everything possible to prevent a war.

Iraq should live up to its U.N. obligations to disarm but the results of U.N. inspections in Iraq should be studied before any war plans are made, he said.

“The use of weapons is not a given, and moreover a preventative war is not foreseen by the U.N. charter,” he said.

“A single member of the international community cannot decide: ‘I’m doing this and you others can either help me or stay home,’” said Archbishop Tauran.

The international community should decide what to do if Iraq has failed to meet its commitments, the archbishop said.

This story was compiled from staff and wire reports.