US Bishops Urge Release of Report on CIA Interrogation Practices

Bishop Richard Pates, Chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the USCCB, has again urged for the release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report on interrogation practices, including torture, used by the C.I.A. “ Since this report has been several years in the making, I hope now is the time to make it public. Only by acknowledging past practices can the United States move to regain the moral high ground as a protector and promoter of human rights.” Bishop Pates wrote.

In a letter to the Senate Committee on Intelligence, Bishop Pates restated Catholic teaching on torture:
“The Catholic Church has long registered absolute opposition to torture. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church asserts: “In carrying out investigations, the regulation against the use of torture, even in the case of serious crimes, must be strictly observed: ‘Christ’s disciple refuses every recourse to such methods, which nothing could justify and in which the dignity of man is as much debased in his torturer as in the torturer’s victim’. International juridical instruments concerning human rights correctly indicate a prohibition against torture as a principle which cannot be contravened under any circumstances.”
The complete letter is available at www.usccb.org.
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has designated June as Torture Awareness Month.