For Italians, the news of the day was their Prime Minister's brief face-to-face with the Pope at Ciampino yesterday morning. Andrea Tornielli gives some detail, but a plausible analysis is offered by La Stampa.
The Pope to Berlusconi:
'Mr. President, what a joy to see you!'
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from
NB: In Italy, the formal title for the Prime Minister is President of the Council of Ministers, that is why the Pope addresses Berlusconi as Mr. President.
"Mr. President, what a joy to see you! And you have just come back from the United States?"
"Your Holiness, I speeded through the skies to get here on time."
Those were the greetings exchanged by Pope Benedict XVI and Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi yesterday morning in front of the car that had brought the Pope to Ciampino airport from Castel Gandolfo for his flight to Prague.
This encounter had been prepared for with great secrecy by Berlusconi's cabinet undersecretary Gianni Letta, but anticipated by us in this newspaper yesterday....
The rest of Tornielli's story is background. But the following analysis from La Stampa gives a better context.
An end to the tension
between the Vatican and Berlusconi
by AMEDEO LA MATTINA
Translated from
Sept. 27, 2009
ROME - More than whatever they talked about, the news was the meeting in itself, and the man who worked to make it possible.
The brief meeting at Ciampino yesterday between Pope Benedict XVI and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the first meeting between the two after the summer media storm that led to the resignation of Dino Boffo as editor of the Italian bishops' newspaper
Avvenire.
It lasted only as long as it took for them to walk from the car that brought the Pope to the airport, to the foot of the steps leading up to the Alitalia Airbus waiting to take the Pope to Prague.
For the Premier, it had a very precise significance: healing an injury.
"It means an end to the tensions between the Church and the government," Berlusconi's aides said, not concealing their great satisfaction at thus sweeping aside all the chatter by those who picture Berlusconi as persona non grata to the Vatican because of his personal life.
It may not have been an audience at the Vatican as the 'Cavaliere' would have wanted (which now becomes probable, according to those who liaison with the Vatican), but it confirms what Letta said in Viterbo 20 days ago after meeting with the Pope informally that "The relationship is firm and the atmosphere is serene".
Berlusconi himself, even after the summer media ruckus, has always maintained that "There is no distance between my government and the Vatican - we carry on a daily dialog as usual".
Above all, between Letta and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who have maintained a dialog that has never been interrupted. Also, notwithstanding the words said last week by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco denouncing the 'direct attack on the Church' [represented by the personal attack on Boffo by the editor of a national enwspaper owned by Berlusconi's brother], as well as on political degradation and the need for 'sober politicians'.
Those hundred steps taken together in Ciampino by the Pope and the Premier confirm that the Vatican considers dialog with the Prime Minister essential. A sign that Berlusconi is not a problem but an opportunity.
Italy is the last outpost in Europe - following the ultra-secularization of that once most Catholic of all nations Spain - where the word of the Church still carries enormous weight.
It is not accidental that there is now a parliamentary inquiry on the appropriateness of commercializing the abortifacient pill RU-486 in Italy, nor that a law giving juridical rights to forms of union other than marriage between a man and a woman has made no progress in Italy so far.
Right now, the Italian government (Berlusconi's) favors scholastic freedom - which means recognizing the role and rights of Catholic schools - as well as cost-of-living bonuses for legitimate famlies. It is also holding firm against any attempts to legalize euthanasia.
The lower House of the Italian Parliament is now debating a proposed law on biological wills that has been approved in the Senate in a version which the Church hierarchy has praised.
Berlusconi briefly spoke to the Pope about the outcome of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh. In conversation with Cardinal Bertone before the Pope arrived, Berlusconi assured him of his government's commitment to measures in support of the family and in defense of life.
In short, it appears the Vatican has its priorities, notwithstanding gossip about Berlusconi, while Palazzo Chigi [the PM's office] knows that Berlusconi's Italy represents to the West and to the industrial world a bastion for the Church.
Internally, Berlusconi has shown his rivals that he has regained any ground he may have lost because of the lurid headlines about his personal lifestyle. His friends note that he has notably scaled down what the public sees of his lifestyle.
But this is also an achievement for Letta. The Vatican appreciates this dove par excellence compared to the hawks who sow discord and incite Berlusconi to answer each media attack blow for blow.
Berlusconi has known to listen to both sides and act according to contingent circumstances. One thing is sure. He is the only head of government in the world whose right-hand man, Letta, happens to be a bona fide 'Gentleman of His Holiness'.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/09/2009 10:32]