U.S. ambassador takes issue with Vatican official's comments on Iraq

Published: 2004-05-14

ROME (CNS) -- U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson took issue with a Vatican official's comment that the scandal over Iraqi prisoner abuse was a "more serious blow to the United States than Sept. 11." The comment by Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's leading foreign affairs expert, made headlines and provoked some criticism in the United States. Speaking to Catholic News Service May 14, Nicholson said Archbishop Lajolo was "entitled to say what he wants," but suggested the archbishop should be careful "when speculating about the reactions of the American people." Most Americans believe the soldiers who abused Iraqi prisoners were a tiny minority who did not represent the U.S. military or the American people, Nicholson said. "They're ashamed of them and want them brought to justice as quickly as possible. I don't get the relationship that (Archbishop Lajolo) makes between that and 9-11, where over 3,000 Americans were brutally murdered," Nicholson said.

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