Text transcribed from original caption.

PHOTO NUMBER:

PC-53590

VATICAN AIDE BLESSES REMAINS OF U.S. SERVICEMEN KILLED IN IRAN

TEHERAN, Iran--During a religious cermony with Greek Catholic Archbishop

Hilarion Capudji on Apr. 30 at a Teheran morgue, Monsignor Annibale Bugnini,

the papal representative in Iran, blesses the plastic-wrapped bodies of eight

American servicemen killed in the aborted April 25 U.S. hostage

rescue attempt.

Archbishop Capudji, the former leader of the Greek-Melkite community

of Jerusalem, had come to Iran from Rome at the invitation of President

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr to take charge of returning the bodies to the U.S.,

but a delay developed when the Ayatollah Mohammed Beheshti, a hard-line

Islamic official in the governing Revolutionary Council, said that nothing

could be done until either the Council or the Ayatollah Khomeini approved

the transfer.

Credit Must Read:

RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO

(Reproduction Rights Not Transferable) (A-TEH-4D-80-JH)