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.