Torture of Iraqis undermines U.S. efforts, Vatican official says

Published: 2004-05-27

ROME (CNS) -- The torture of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers undermines "the credibility of the values for which so many young Americans have given their lives in Iraq," said the Vatican's foreign minister. Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican secretary for relations with states, said he expects Pope John Paul II to remind President George W. Bush that as the world's only superpower the United States has a corresponding obligation to be the world leader in promoting respect for human rights. An interview with Archbishop Lajolo appeared in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera May 27, one week before Bush was expected to meet the pope at the Vatican. "On an international level, the United States has a primary role, and therefore it also is expected to have an equal commitment to those moral values which belong to the most glorious pages of its history and which are written in its constitution," the archbishop said.

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