WASHINGTON — A day before President Bush said at a White House press conference that only days remained to find a diplomatic solution to the Iraq crisis, a special envoy sent by Pope John Paul II delivered one more plea to seek peaceful means to avert an impending war.

On Ash Wednesday, as Catholics around the world heeded the Pope's request to fast and pray for peace in Iraq and the Holy Land, Cardinal Pio Laghi met with President Bush at the White House and delivered a letter from the Holy Father concerning the conflict with Saddam Hussein.

At a meeting with reporters earlier in the day March 5, Cardinal Laghi said an American invasion of Iraq outside the context of the United Nations would be “illegal and unjust.”

John Paul has indicated his opposition to a war against Iraq at this time, and Cardinal Laghi made it clear the Pope's letter advocated peace.

“I cannot reveal what is in the Pope's letter for President Bush,” Cardinal Laghi said in his homily at an Ash Wednesday Mass celebrated at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, “but he said ‘peace is the noblest endeavor of the human race.’”

Cardinal Laghi, former apostolic nuncio to the United States and friend of the first President Bush, emphasized the importance of peace, saying, “For the Holy See — that is, for the Catholic Church — peace is built on four pillars: truth, justice, love and freedom. The Church's solicitude for peace has been a constant one and that is why she never tires in her work for the cause of peace.

“She believes in the power of the human mind and courage of the human heart to find peaceful solutions to disagreements, using the vast and rich patrimony of international law and institutions created for that very purpose.”

Before he left Rome, Cardinal Laghi said, “I will insist, on behalf of the Pope, that every peaceful avenue be explored. It is certainly necessary to obtain the disarmament of Saddam and of his regime, but insofar as possible, it must be achieved without the use of arms.”

At a brief press conference following the Mass in Washington, Cardinal Laghi said he met with the president for 40 minutes. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See James Nicholson also were present, he said.

Asked for Bush's reaction to the Pope's message, Cardinal Laghi said Bush “asked to have time to read it carefully. I did not expect an immediate answer.”

Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls said before the cardinal's meeting the latter would “illustrate the position and the initiatives undertaken by the Holy See to contribute to disarmament and to peace in the Middle East.”

Asked about Navarro-Valls' statement, Cardinal Laghi replied, “I also spoke with the president about the Palestinian-Israeli problem.” He said he told Bush, “We say, ‘First the crisis in Iraq, then

…' No, not then. We must solve [the Palestinian] problem now, sooner rather than later.”

He said Bush's assertion that peace and freedom will follow from a war against Iraq cannot be relied upon.

“We maintain that the consequences are not so clear,” he said. “There will be a disruption and certainly there will also be destruction. I think of all the children. … Look at Afghanistan. Certainly, they have done something, but the consequences are not so clear.”

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, at the side of Cardinal Laghi at the press conference, said, “There are always unintended consequences of anything as grave as a war. It doesn't mean there is never a reason for a defensive war.”

Cardinal Laghi cautioned that one of the possible consequences of a war would be a “great gulf” between Islam and Christianity.

“You have to realize that [Muslims are] as numerous as the Christians,” he said. “The Arabic family that professes Islam — it is very strong.”

Papal U.N. Address?

The 80-year-old cardinal seemed cool to the idea, proposed by the National Council of Churches USA and other groups opposed to the possible war, of the Pope's traveling to New York to address the United Nations.

“He met with the secretary-general of the United Nations 10 days ago,” he said.

“I believe that when peace is at stake, it is never too late for dialogue,” the Pope told a crowd in St. Peter's Square on Ash Wednesday. “We must pray and fast for peaceful coexistence between peoples and nations.”

It remained uncertain what effect the Pope's letter has had on the Bush administration. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said after the meeting that Bush told Cardinal Laghi, “if it comes to the use of force, he believes it will make the world better. Removing the threat to the region will lead to a better, more peaceful world in which innocent Iraqis will have a better life.”

American diplomats have continued their efforts to convince U.N. Security Council members to back a war, and Bush reiterated his policies during his press conference March 6.

There, he repeated that Saddam has failed to fulfill his obligations to get rid of his illegal weapons, even though he has had 12 years to do so. Bush indicated that war would come because Saddam has chosen not to disarm.

“The risk of doing nothing, the risk of hoping that Saddam Hussein changes his mind and becomes a gentle soul,” the president said, “the risk that somehow, that inaction will make the world safer, is a risk I'm not willing to take for the American people.”

Joseph A. D'Agostino writes from Washington, D.C.