"A Moral Justification For War Exists"

THE ATTACKS of Sept. 11, 2001, sent religious people all over the world to their knees in prayer. Just 48 hours after the World Trade Center collapsed, a former altar boy from a poor Catholic family in Iowa found himself praying in private with Pope John Paul II. James Nicholson — tapped by President George W. Bush as the new Administration's ambassador to the Vatican — went ahead with a prescheduled Sept. 13, 2001, audience with the Pope to present his diplomatic credentials.

ALONG WITH HIS PRAYERS , the aging Pontiff used the suddenly solemn ceremony to...