CHURCH UNEASE WITH BERLUSCONI
The Roman Catholic Church has expressed "unease" and "mortification" over revelations surrounding the private life of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi.
Source: BBC
- In some of the strongest Church criticism to date, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference condemned Mr Berlusconi's "arrogant" behaviour.
- His political party relies heavily on the support of Catholic voters.
- However the prime minister's reported dealings with younger women have not greatly damaged his approval ratings.
- There have been a series of allegations about Mr Berlusconi's private life over the past few months.
- Media attention first focused on an alleged relationship between the prime minister and 18-year-old Noemi Letizia.
- Mr Berlusconi attended her birthday party, bringing a 6,000 euro (£5,160; $8,500) necklace, prompting his wife Veronica to seek a divorce and accuse her husband of "consorting with minors".
- The prime minister initially said he had only gone to Ms Letizia's party because she was the daughter of a family friend, but photographs later emerged of them together at social events last year, when she was 17.
- He also confirmed she had stayed at his villa in Sardinia.
- More recently the left-leaning Italian magazine L'Espresso published transcripts and audio of an alleged encounter between Mr Berlusconi, 72, and an escort, Patrizia D'Addario.
- The prime minister's lawyers insist the tapes are fakes and have insisted he had never paid for sex.
CATHOLIC CHURCH TO ITALIAN PM TO CONTROL HIMSELF
Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily, reprimanded the Prime Minister for his “self-declared weakness for actresses in the bloom of youth”, and called on the 72-year-old billionaire to control himself.
His wife has already declared that enough is enough and yesterday it was the turn of Roman Catholic bishops to take Silvio Berlusconi to task for his wandering eye.
As Mr Berlusconi and his soon-to-be former wife, Veronica Lario, drew up the battlelines for a bruising divorce, the newspaper - the voice of the Italian bishops' conference threw its weight behind growing calls for the Prime Minister to moderate his behaviour.
Last night Mr Berlusconi went on state-run television to defend himself, repeating that his estranged wife should publicly apologise for embarrassing him and admit that she was wrong. He also said that the suggestion by his wife and the media that he had a relationship with an 18-year-old girl was a lie.
Ms Lario, 52, had cited her husband's frequent flirtations with younger women as a reason for divorce, and pointed to his recent presence at the 18th birthday party of Noemi Letizia as evidence.
Courtesy: Times Online
His wife has already declared that enough is enough and yesterday it was the turn of Roman Catholic bishops to take Silvio Berlusconi to task for his wandering eye.As Mr Berlusconi and his soon-to-be former wife, Veronica Lario, drew up the battlelines for a bruising divorce, the newspaper - the voice of the Italian bishops' conference threw its weight behind growing calls for the Prime Minister to moderate his behaviour.
Last night Mr Berlusconi went on state-run television to defend himself, repeating that his estranged wife should publicly apologise for embarrassing him and admit that she was wrong. He also said that the suggestion by his wife and the media that he had a relationship with an 18-year-old girl was a lie.Ms Lario, 52, had cited her husband's frequent flirtations with younger women as a reason for divorce, and pointed to his recent presence at the 18th birthday party of Noemi Letizia as evidence.
Courtesy: Times Online
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