Challenges in Iraq daunt United States, says U.S. bishops' head

Published: 2004-06-23

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As a handover of power in Iraq nears, the United States continues to face challenges, said the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., USCCB president, said the United States was responsible for ensuring that Iraq can develop a sustainable, secure democracy. "By its military intervention in Iraq, the U.S. government has taken on a moral obligation to engage in a difficult, long-term process of nation-building," Bishop Gregory said in a June 22 statement. He said that while Iraq deserved to be sovereign "a new Iraq cannot be imposed by the United States or any other occupying power." The bishop called for an active U.N. role in the handover of power to an Iraqi-led government. He reiterated the bishops' concerns on the war in Iraq and the "unpredictable and uncontrollable negative consequences of an invasion and occupation." He said the "events of the past year have reinforced those ethical concerns."

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