Sex scandals have strained relations between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Catholic Church to breaking point, but the Vatican has not managed to find a viable Christian-democratic candidate to support.
Fiercely criticized by the opposition and members of his own party alike, Berlusconi has always enjoyed the discreet support of the Catholic Church in exchange for respecting its uncompromising stance on bioethics.
However, as fresh allegations of corruption and callgirls at the highest levels of politics hit the headlines, a senior Catholic bishop broke his silence to condemn the immoral behavior, stopping just short of naming the prime minister.
Photo: Reuters
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the powerful Conference of Italian Bishops (CEI), this week denounced what he called “behavior that is contrary to public dignity” and “difficult to reconcile with institutional decorum.”
The tirade seemed to be aimed mainly at Berlusconi, who has just celebrated his 75th birthday and faces a series of legal cases, including one in which he is accused of paying for sex with a Moroccan pole-dancer when she was 17.
On his way to Germany last week, Pope Benedict XVI also called for “an increasingly intense ethical renewal for the good of beloved Italy.”
According to Italian press reports, the pope met Bagnasco and Vatican No. 2 Tarcisio Bertone last month to discuss how best to react to the scandals surrounding Berlusconi — though Benedict insisted the prime minister not be named.
Parishes, Catholic associations and pilgrims have complained about the scandals, which have made the headlines in both Italian and foreign newspapers.
Marco Politi, Vatican expert for Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper, accused the church of being “two years late” in reprimanding the prime minister.
He added that Italy’s bishops “are responsible for having waited too long to say who has brought Italy to the brink of the abyss.”
The church has long supported the Berlusconi government, even in the wake of a string of lurid sex scandals, with the prime minister defending its stance against euthanasia, genetic manipulation and gay marriage.
An alternative to Berlusconi has also proved difficult to find, and should a left-wing coalition gain power the church would no longer be guaranteed support on its most traditional principles.
Bagnasco has not said what he sees in a post-Berlusconi Italy, but has spoken of a “cultural and social party on the horizon, which would dialogue with politics” and be a “promising crib for the future.”
“It is clear for the CEI leaders that the Berlusconi era is over, but that does not mean controlling the transition to a new phase, or how long it takes,” church affairs expert Andrew Tornielli wrote on the Vatican Insider Web site.
The CEI is hoping for a “new generation” of Catholic politicians, he said.
Some in the church dream of overhauling the political system, bringing separate Catholic forces together to form a large centrist party — but Vatican expert Sandro Magister believes such a vision would be difficult to make reality.
Differences between right and left-wing Catholics are too great and the prevailing mood in the church was to keep “the bipolar system,” he said.
The arrangement, experts say, allows Catholic politicians to back different social and economic policies but unite on issues like the “sanctity of life.”
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
RSS