Silvio Berlusconi’s relationship with the Catholic Church was in the deep freeze last night after he was forced to pull out of a Mass intended to begin his religious rehabilitation and his family’s newspaper mounted a personal attack on the editor of Avvenire, the bishops’ newspaper.
The Italian Prime Minister was accused of trying to muzzle and intimidate the media after his lawyer announced that he was suing the newspaper La Repubblica for an article suggesting that Mr Berlusconi’s behaviour had made him open to blackmail.
Legal action was also being considered against publications abroad, including Britain, for reports concerning the Italian leader’s private life, he said.
Mr Berlusconi was due to attend the Celestine Pardon, or Perdonanza, an annual 700-year-old service for the forgiveness of sins, in L’Aquila yesterday.
However, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State and the Pope’s deputy, cancelled a dinner with Mr Berlusconi that was due to have been held after the Mass. The Prime Minister then withdrew from the Mass.
Plans for a meeting with the Pope next month at the papal palace in Viterbo, which were already doubtful, looked out of the question. During the G8 summit it was reported that the Prime Minister had sought a papal audience but was rebuffed — a report that Mr Berlusconi denied.
The two have not met since June 2008. The revelations about Mr Berlusconi’s private life and his impending divorce from his second wife, Veronica Lario, has caused dismay among many leading Italian Catholic figures.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6814326.ece
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