Vatican official says “Torture grave offense to God.”

Vatican City, May 9, 2004 / 22:00 pm

In the wake of the scandal in the United States surrounding the disclosure of pictures depicting acts of torture and inhumane treatment of Iraqi prisoners, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, said last week those acts constitute a scandal that “offends God Himself.”

“The violence that man perpetrates against man offends God himself,” said Archbishop Lajolo, during an interview with the Italian television network RAI, which aired a report on the tortures and abuse committed by soldiers at the Abu Gharib prison.

Last week the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published an editorial saying the torture of Iraqi prisoners was “incompatible with the standards of a great democracy."

Photos and videos of the abuse have sent shockwaves through American politics.