ROME LETTER: There are signs the Italian prime minister might not count on church backing for long.
IS THE Catholic Church about to pull the plug on embattled Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi?
When
Pope Benedict last Friday called for greater ethical rigour in Italian
public life, were those comments at least partly directed at Berlusconi
and his “bunga bunga” nights?
For much of his 17 years in public
life, the controversial Berlusconi has, remarkably, managed to count on
the tacit, unspoken but determined support of the Italian hierarchy and,
by extension, of the Holy See.
There are those who would argue that the
media tycoon, accused (but not convicted) of everything from Mafia
association to money laundering to tax evasion, is hardly the model of
Christian virtue.
Church figures have always responded by saying
that Berlusconi, for all his problems, is still a more trustworthy
interlocutor than the centre-left, with its “dirty reds under the bed”
past.
Anything, they argue, is better than to vote for a post-Communist
left which fundamentally works off an anti-clerical, secular agenda.
That,
at least, is the theory.
The practice is perhaps more about realpolitik
than Christian morality. Despite everything, the Catholic Church in
Italy remains tenaciously attached to the final vestiges of its once
immense temporal power.
It likes to meddle in Italian politics and, what
is more, it likes to do so in the belief that in return for its tacit
support, Berlusconi will guarantee not only favourable legislation on
issues such as euthanasia, stem cell research and Catholic schools, but
also that his government will continue to guarantee a whole series of
favourable tax concessions.
Last month, on the eve of a crucial
confidence vote in parliament, the Vatican’s secretary of state (or
prime minister), Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and a number of newly
appointed Italian cardinals, very publicly met Berlusconi for a
diplomatic “lunch”.
For any wavering Catholic deputies, unsure which way to vote, the message was clear.
On
at least one other occasion last summer, Cardinal Bertone was at dinner
with Berlusconi, at the home of pro-Berlusconi state TV journalist,
Bruno Vespa. Last week, as the storm generated by the latest round of
sexgate scandals involving Berlusconi raged, he was again at lunch with
Cardinal Bertone.
So the embattled prime minister can still count
on the support of the church, can he? Perhaps, and there again, perhaps
not.
A very serious sign that the times might be changing came on
Thursday night when, for the first time, Cardinal Bertone commented
publicly on the “Rubygate” sex scandal.
In terms of
“VaticanSpeak”, his words were unusually forthright: “The church urges
and invites everybody, especially those who have a public responsibility
in whatever sector, be it administrative, political or juridical, to
assume a much more robust moral stance, in terms of both legality and
justice.”
Lest anyone failed to get the point, Cardinal Bertone
pointed out that the church finds itself in agreement with Italy’s
president Giorgio Napolitano (a former communist) who last week called
for “greater sobriety and wisdom” in public life.
Any reference to
Berlusconi’s “Sultan Nights Of Bunga Bunga” is entirely intentional.
Furthermore, Cardinal Bertone underlined how the Vatican daily,
L’Osservatore Romano, had carried President Napolitano’s call for
sobriety (very similar to that of the pope on Friday) on its front page.
As
with the “Barigate” scandal of two summers ago, involving call girl
Patrizia D’Addario, many Italian Catholics have again given widespread
expression to their sense of outrage, embarrassment and discomfort
following the revelations of the prime minister’s “amoral” lifestyle.
Genoa-based
priest Don Andrea Gallo, founder of the San Benedetto community, put it
this way last week in an interview with daily Il Fatto: “I am
disgusted. At the age of 82 I feel entitled to say that it is
unacceptable that the church has not taken a position against this
trash, rather it continues to support Berlusconi. The church is no
longer interested in the poor and the weak, rather it lives by its
privileges and wants to gain more of them . . . “He is amoral, a man who
acts outside the confines of the constitution, of justice, of legality
and of basic civility . . . In his life, I see only decay and sadness.”
L’Avvenire,
the daily run by the Italian Bishops Conference, drew attention
yesterday to ongoing scandals involving the Berlusconi regime, and last
week commented that “no government figure should put himself or be put
above the law . . .”
Meanwhile, Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana
complained about the “example given to normal citizens from on high”.
Much
attention will be focused today on an address to the Italian Bishops
Conference by its president, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco.
For many, another
anti-Berlusconi statement would be proof that, finally, the church is
getting ready to pull the rug.
SIC: IT/IE