VATICAN CITY — As the toll of death and destruction mounted during the second week of war in Iraq, Pope John Paul II repeatedly prayed for peace and said the conflict must not be allowed to become a "religious catastrophe."

The pope, who strongly opposed an attack on Iraq, made the comments as photos of civilian victims in Iraq provoked sadness and indignation in much of the world, especially Muslim countries.

Meanwhile, some church leaders stepped up criticism of the war effort led by U.S. and British troops, as Catholics tried to wrestle with the moral issues involved. Many in the United States were distressed at the loss of life on both sides, including four U.S. soldiers killed by an Iraqi suicide bomber at a military checkpoint.

Speaking at a noon blessing from his apartment window above St. Peter's Square March 30, the pope said the world was experiencing a moment in which "painful armed conflicts are threatening humanity's hope in a better future."

He offered a special prayer to Mary for war victims and especially for her intercession for peace in Iraq.

The day before, addressing bishops from predominantly Muslim Indonesia, the pope expressed deep concern about the interreligious impact of the war in Iraq.

"War must never be allowed to divide world religions. I encourage you to take this unsettling moment as an occasion to work together, as brothers committed to peace, with your own people, with those of other religious beliefs and with all men and women of good will in order to ensure understanding, cooperation and solidarity," he said.

"Let us not permit a human tragedy also to become a religious catastrophe," he said.

At his weekly general audience March 26, the pope said his heart was weighed down by reports coming out of Iraq, and he urged Catholics to continue praying the rosary for peace.

On March 25, the pontiff sent a message to a group of international military chaplains meeting in Rome. He encouraged chaplains to educate soldiers in the ethical values that underlie humanitarian law and promote respect for the dignity of military adversaries and civilians.

"Precisely when weapons are unleashed, the need for rules aimed at making warfare less inhuman is imperative," he said.

The pope also told the chaplains that recent worldwide peace protests against the Iraqi war showed that a large part of humanity rejects war -- except in legitimate self-defense -- as a means to resolve conflicts between countries.

After missiles struck two market areas in Baghdad, Iraq, and left an estimated 70 civilians dead, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said the war was "pitiless" and was being carried out with "indifferent cruelty." It said the civilian deaths would feed hatred now and in the future.

In St. Peter's Square below the pope's apartment, an Austrian peace activist made a rough landing March 28 in a motorized hang glider decorated with the words: "Peace — No War." He was arrested shortly afterward.

The Vatican's top foreign affairs specialist, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, said it was already clear that the Iraqi war would generate terrorism and seriously damage Christian-Muslim dialogue.

In an interview with an Italian magazine, Archbishop Tauran said the outbreak of hostilities had saddened him above all because of the "contempt (shown) for international law."

"This war will generate all the extremisms possible, including the Islamic one. We must be aware of this. It will provoke terrorism," he said.

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, frequently mentioned as a possible papal candidate, said in Rome March 27 that economic interests were behind the war in Iraq and that "destruction is carried out in order to have a pretext for reconstruction."

In Iraq, the Chaldean Catholic Church was forced to close its headquarters in the capital, Baghdad, and transfer its personnel elsewhere after a bomb or missile blew the building's windows out. A Carmelite church in the capital also was damaged. About 175,000 Catholics, most of them Chaldean-rite, live in Baghdad.

In Basra, the southern Iraqi city where some of the heaviest fighting occurred, Archbishop Djibrail Kassab appealed for emergency medicine and water-treatment equipment because people risked contracting diseases from drinking contaminated river water.

Medical supplies provided by Caritas Iraq were used to treat several hundred people in Basra, mostly women and children injured in the bombing. Caritas Iraq also treated injured civilians on the streets of Baghdad and transported the seriously wounded to local hospitals, according to a British Catholic aid agency.

The heavy toll prompted Catholic and other Christian leaders of Baghdad to appeal for a cease-fire. Chaldean Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni told Vatican Radio that the bishops released their appeal after a March 26 meeting in the Iraqi capital, where he said the situation was worsening every day because of the coalition bombardments.

"United to our Muslim brothers, we ask everyone to issue an urgent appeal for a cease-fire," Bishop Warduni said.

Citing growing numbers of civilian casualties, he said, "Neither human rights nor civil rights are being respected." He said the war was a human rights violation because it was decided outside the U.N. Security Council.

U.S. officials have ruled out any talk of a cease-fire.

In the United States, Catholic discussion on the war touched on the role of soldiers fighting in the military campaign. The head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services said in a March 25 letter to his priests that members of the armed forces should carry out their duties in good conscience because they can presume the integrity of the leaders who decided to go to war in Iraq.

"Given the complexity of factors involved, many of which understandably remain confidential, it is altogether appropriate for members of our armed forces to presume the integrity of our leadership and its judgments, and therefore to carry out their military duties in good conscience," Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien said in the letter.

In a March 7 Lenten message, Bishop John Michael Botean of the Romanian Diocese of St. George in Canton, Ohio, told the people of his Eastern-rite diocese that "any direct participation and support of this war against the people of Iraq is objectively grave evil, a matter of mortal sin."

That issue was reflected in the Rome meeting of chaplains, attended by Franciscan Father Louis V. Iasiello, deputy chief of chaplains for the U.S. Navy and the top chaplain of the U.S. Marine Corps.

"The role of the chaplain is to bring troops the spiritual and ethical guidance needed to retain their humanity," said Father Iasiello, who holds the rank of rear admiral.

"If you fight with the right intention -- to prepare for a just and lasting peace -- you will retain your humanity and protect the humanity of others," he said.