Deal,
You said that while officials of the church expressed “concern” about the Iraq war, you weren’t aware that the Church opposed the Iraq war. I know you’re making a distinction between the official church rulings and the mere pronouncements of the Pope, a distinction that is not always clear to many people outside (or inside) the church. I’d love for you or David to elaborate on what the difference is.
Certainly, I was led to believe by the liberal media that the Pope’s views on the Iraq war went beyond mere “concern.”

Vatican Strongly Opposes Iraq War
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
But in some of the Vatican’s strongest language against a possible war, its foreign minister Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran said a unilateral military strike would be a “crime against peace” with no justification on grounds of self-defense.

Pope says Iraq war threatens humanity
“When war, like the one now in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is even more urgent for us to proclaim, with a firm and decisive voice, that only peace is the way of building a more just and caring society,” he said.
The Pope, in a speech to employees of Catholic television station Telepace, added: “Violence and weapons can never resolve the problems of man.”
Pope urges world to avoid Iraq war
Monday, 13 January, 2003, 15:29
Without naming countries, the pope said efforts for peace were urgently needed “in the Middle East, to extinguish the ominous smouldering of a conflict which, with the joint efforts of all, can be avoided.”
His remarks echoed recent comments about Iraq by top Vatican officials, who have reiterated Catholic teaching that “preventative” war is not justifiable, The Associated Press said.

Pope condemns war in Iraq
Pope John Paul II has expressed renewed opposition to the possibility of war in Iraq, saying the use of military force had to be the “very last option”.
In a New Year address to Vatican diplomats, the Pope said war was “always a defeat for humanity”, and called instead for more diplomacy and dialogue. “War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations,” he said.
The BBC’s David Willey in Rome says The Vatican clearly does not consider that America’s planned offensive to topple Saddam Hussein meets the conditions of a “just war” laid down by the Roman Catholic Church.

Deal, in addressing specifically my question of why such comments didn’t have more influence on you and other conservative Catholic, you said, “I suppose one reason that Catholics didn’t turn against the war once negative comments were heard from members of the curia and the Holy Father, was that they didn’t feel any obligation to do so.”
I understand why, as a technical theological matter, you would say this. But as a moral matter, I’m puzzled. Why did you not find the Pope persuasive? It was obviously something he thought about and prayed over tremendously. He was not merely giving an off the cuff soundbite; he was saying he thought the administration’s approach to the war contradicted the essence of Christ’s teachings. Why did you find the Pope so profoundly unpersuasive on this issue when you found him deeply persuasive on other issues?