Italy’s top bishop on Monday issued scathing criticism of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for his role in a sex scandal, insisting that public officials must control themselves and warning of the damage to the country and its reputation.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops’ conference, said Italians were fed up with the scandal and its domination of the political scene, and said the matter should be resolved quickly.
“It’s easy to foresee that within the collective soul, this could leave profound marks, if not true wounds,” Bagnasco warned at a meeting of the bishops’ decision-making body.
Prosecutors have placed Berlusconi and three associates under investigation, alleging he paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl nicknamed Ruby and used his office to cover it up.
Berlusconi has denied the allegations and accused prosecutors of a politically motivated witch hunt. Ruby, who is now 18, has denied she had sex with the prime minister, but has said he gave her 7,000 euros (US$9,400) to help her out financially.
Wiretapped conversations of participants at parties — printed in almost every Italian newspaper — have described Berlusconi’s villa as a brothel with topless girls. Berlusconi has insisted the parties were perfectly correct and denied paying for sex.
Bagnasco didn’t mention the prime minister’s name, but he had said last week that he would address the scandal in his speech on Monday and his comments left little room for doubt.
Bagnasco said the news stories “refer to behavior that is contrary to public decorum and, whether true or presumed, have exposed holes that show a style that is incompatible with sobriety and correctness; meanwhile, some ask to what these huge investigations are owed.”
He said Italians were fed up with the scandal and the damage it was doing to the country — they are “watching the actors on the public scene with dismay and are breathing obvious moral unease.
“We know that democratic life requires a necessary delicate balance, based on the ability of everyone to control themselves,” he said.
Yet now, there is confusion and disturbance, “a climate of mutual delegitimization.”
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