Pope Pleads for Peaceful Gulf Solution : Vatican: ‘War is an adventure with no return,’ he says in annual message.

VATICAN CITY —  Warning that “war is an adventure with no return,” Pope John Paul II admonished world leaders on Christmas Day to settle the Persian Gulf crisis peacefully through negotiation.

Thousands of chilled pilgrims stood silently in a wet and cold St. Peter’s Square to hear the Pope’s powerful appeal for peace in “the tormented nations of the Middle East.”

If the rainy weather cut the size of the crowd, the tenor of the papal message and John Paul’s unusually blunt language also robbed much of the festive air from the annual gathering in the giant Renaissance square before St. Peter’s Basilica.

“For the area of the gulf, we await with trepidation for the threat of conflict to disappear,” John Paul said. “May leaders be convinced that war is an adventure with no return.

“By reasoning, patience and dialogue with respect for the inalienable rights of peoples and nations, it is possible to identify and travel the paths of understanding and peace,” the Pope insisted.

The statement was John Paul’s strongest plea for a peaceful settlement in the gulf since Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait, which the Pope has condemned.

Noting that the message was delivered on Christmas, which the world’s 850 million Roman Catholics celebrate as the birthday of “the Prince of Peace,” observers here read the appeal as a stark expression of the Vatican’s fear that war is near and its conviction that violence can be headed off by negotiations.

A measure of the Vatican’s quickening concern that events in the gulf may soon spin out of control came also at John Paul’s midnight Mass in the basilica. One of the “prayers of the faithful” that are part of the liturgy was assigned to an Arabic speaker:

“Father, you wanted your son, Jesus, to be a reconciler and peacemaker of heaven and earth,” said the Arabic prayer. “Enlighten the minds of those responsible for nations so that they become builders of peace and make every effort to build it in justice and reciprocal respect.”

As bells pealed out across the dank Eternal City at noon, John Paul delivered his annual address entitled “urbi et orbi”-- to the city and the world--from a throne on the central balcony of St. Peter’s, basing his Christmas message on a passage from the prophet Isaiah: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. . . . “

“The light of Christ is with the tormented nations of the Middle East,” the 70-year-old pontiff said, calling for a peace through dialogue not only for the gulf but also for the entire region.

“The Holy Land, too, has been awaiting this peace for years: a peaceful solution to the whole question which concerns it, a solution which takes into account the legitimate expectations of the Palestinian people and of the people which lives in the state of Israel,” the Pope said.

This year, Arabic and Hebrew were among the 53 languages in which John Paul issued Christmas greetings. In English, he said: “May the light that came into the world on this blessed day shine in your hearts and in your homes always.”

In a majestic piazza decked with a 60-foot Christmas tree and a life-size nativity scene, flags of a dozen nations hung limply in the sodden air as John Paul walked onto the balcony in his white and gold robes after saying Mass inside the basilica.

As usual in a papal Christmas address, beyond its religious content John Paul offered a shorthand vision of the world and its woes.

For his own continent, the Polish-born pontiff was upbeat, hailing the “demanding challenges and prospects” of a new Europe being forged “above the tumbled walls of ideological and political opposition.” He warned Europeans, though, that they must overcome “hedonism and practical materialism” if the barriers between them are to be erased.

Turning to one of his favorite themes, the Pope appealed for greater concern by the world’s few rich--the North--for the world’s many poor--the South.

“I call once again for a more just sharing of the earth’s resources, a new and more just world ethical and economic order,” John Paul said. “Only effective and respectful cooperation between the rich countries and the emerging peoples can prevent the contrast between North and South from becoming a widening abyss which will increase the already vast and disturbing archipelago of poverty and death.”

The Pope also issued a special appeal for Africa, “especially where freedom is compromised because of underdevelopment, where peace and harmony between different peoples and traditions is disturbed by fratricidal struggles, where hope for peace is still fragile and must be strengthened.”

John Paul is a frequent visitor to Africa. A civil war in Liberia, however, has short-circuited plans for a papal trip to West Africa next month.

Instead, the Pope will remain in Rome, refining a list of about 15 bishops who will be elevated to cardinal, probably in the spring. Papal trips for 1991 include a scheduled weekend in Portugal, a visit to Poland and Hungary and a 10-day swing through Brazil beginning in mid-October.