The headline is, as usual, misleading. It is not the style of most Church leaders to 'slam' anyone in public, particularly not for what are essentially personal peccadillos, no matter that they have generated much 'scandal' (more in the media, it seems, than among the Italian public), and hardly ever by name. To place things in perspective, I have translated everything Cardinal Bagnasco had to say in his opening address to the winter meeting of the Italian bishops' Permanent Council this afternoon, Jan. 24, in Ancona.
Italy's top bishop
slams Berlusconi for scandal
ROME. Jan. 24 (AP) —
Italy's top bishop issued scathing criticism of Premier Silvio Berlusconi for his role in a sex scandal Monday, insisting that public officials must control themselves and warning of the damage to the country and its reputation.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops' conference, said Italians were fed up with the scandal and its domination of the political scene, and said the matter should be resolved quickly.
Bagnasco didn't mention the premier's name, but he had said last week that he would address the scandal in his speech Monday and his comments left little room for doubt.
"It's easy to foresee that within the collective soul, this could leave profound marks, if not true wounds," Bagnasco warned at a meeting of the bishops' decision-making body.
Prosecutors have placed Berlusconi and three associates under investigation, alleging he paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl nicknamed Ruby and used his office to cover it up.
Berlusconi has denied the allegations and accused prosecutors of a politically motivated witch hunt. Ruby, who is now 18, has denied she had sex with the premier, but has said he gave her euro 7,000 ($9,400) to help her out financially.
Wiretapped conversations of participants at parties — printed in virtually every Italian newspaper — have described Berlusconi's villa as a brothel with topless girls; Berlusconi, meanwhile, has insisted the dinner parties were perfectly correct and denied ever paid for sex.
Despite his aggressive defense, the conservative Berlusconi has come under increasing criticism from the Catholic Church, with the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, referring directly to the probe last week by calling for a more "robust morality" and legality among public officials.
Pope Benedict XVI issued a similar call a day later, though he didn't cite Berlusconi by name.
Bagnasco was clearly saddened by news which he said "refer to behavior that is contrary to public decorum and, whether true or presumed, have exposed holes that show a style that is incompatible with sobriety and correctness; meanwhile some ask to what these huge investigations are owed."
He said Italians were fed up with the scandal and the damage it was doing to the country — they are "watching the actors on the public scene with dismay and are breathing obvious moral unease," he said
"We know that democratic life requires a necessary delicate balance, based on the ability of everyone to control themselves," he added. Yet now, there is confusion and disturbance, "a climate of mutual delegitimization."
Paying for sex with a prostitute is not a crime in Italy, unless the prostitute is younger than 18.
Berlusconi has not been charged. He has refused so far to appear before prosecutors for questioning, and on Monday his lawyers filed court documents defending him from the accusations, the ANSA news agency reported.
What Cardinal Bagnasco said
The full text of Cardinal Bagnasco's address has been posted on the CEI site. It must be pointed out that he refers to the 'scandal' only in the seventh and last of the seven major concerns for the Church in Italy today that he brought up in the address, and that it comes under the concern over preserving and reinforcing the institution of the family. Here is a translation of the part referring to the 'scandal' - which, as the AP story fails to show, is 'fair and balanced', in that it does not find fault with one side only:
As I have expressed several times, our nation must rapidly and definitively get past this convulsive phase that is mixing up in an increasingly threatening manner ethical weakness with political and institutional fibrillation, in which those in power not only eye each other with suspicion but lay traps for each other, in a conflictual logic which has lasted too many years now.
News has been rife about behavior that is contrary to public decorum, and samples of lifestyles, true or presumed, have been on view that are incompatible with sobriety and correctness, while some wonder what is motivating the enormous amount of investigations underway.
In passing from one abnormal situation to the other, it is the general equilibrium of the nation that is progressively affected, not to mention the general image of the country.
The national community, in fact, looks with dismay on the actors on the public scene in a climate of evident moral unease. We know that the life of a democracy consists of delicate and necessary balances, resting on the ability of each member to set limits on himself, which means, to keep oneself wisely within the unbreachable confines of one's personal prerogatives.
"To act in a perspective of responsibility," the Pope admonished in our last Settimana Sociale [week devoted to discussing social issues], "means being ready to emerge from the exclusive search for one's own interests in order to pursue together what is good for the nation" (Benedict XVI, Message to the 46th Settimana Sociale delle Cattolici Italiani, Oct. 12, 2010).
From the present situation, no matter how things will turn out, no one can really find any reason to be happy nor to consider having won anything. Too many today - each in his own way - are contributing to the general perturbation, to a certain confusion, to a climate of reciprocal delegitimization.
And it is easy to see how this could leave profound marks on the collective spirit, if not true and proper wounds. The national community doubtless has its own robustness and will not let itself be easily 'charmed' nor distracted from its daily tasks.
Nonetheless, it is possible that some subtle poisons would insinuate themselves into some minds as in some relationships, and in this way - God forbid! - serve to affirm mental models and behaviors that are radically partisan.
Would this not be a serious threat to social cohesion? What common future could result if the terrain on which this nation lives is thus poisoned?
It is necessary that everyone must stop soon, clear up matters in an attentive and peaceful way and in the right venues, and listen to the voice of the nation that asks to be led with farsightedness and effectiveness but without adventurism, starting from the ethics of life, family, solidarity and work.
As pastors who love our Christian community, and as citizens of this beloved country, we say to each and everyone: Do not yield to pessimism but look ahead with confidence. This is the interior attitude that will allow us to have that spurt of conscience and responsiblity that is necessary for us to go forward and build together....
[He finished this part of his address by speaking about the responsibility to the younger generations, and then concluded it.]
1/25/2011
The Italian media generally appeared 'let down' today because Cardinal Bagnasco did not excoriate Berlusconi as they had been looking forward to - rather unrealistically, I think. Andrea Tornielli, as usual, expresses a well-tempered view in his blog today...
So Bagnasco did not
'excommunicate' Berlusconi
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from
...[Cardinal Bagnasco] dedicated an ample paragraph of his opening address to the CEI Permanent Council in Ancona to the controversy in the headlines these days.
Of course, he did not fail to mention "behaviors contrary to public decorum" and lifestyles "that are not compatible with sobriety and correctness" - unequivocal references to the 'Ruby case'
[Ruby is the stage name of the Moroccan teenager whom Berlusconi is said to have paid for sexual favors, according to a police investigation in which each detail has been played out in the Italian media].
But he also appeared to share public perpleixity over the aggressive investigations launched by Milan prosecutors to 'document' Berlusconi's private activities with women guests in his estate near Milan.
"Some wonder," he noted, "what is motivating the enormous amount of investigations underway," adding: "In passing from one abnormal situation to the other, it is the general equilibrium of the nation that is progressively affected, not to mention the general image of the country."
He particularly stressed the responsibility of the entire society in educating the younger generations, and referred to the 'moral unease' among the Italian people as they watch "the actors on the public scene".
In short,
the cardinal spoke clearly but in an elevated way, as a pastor who does not intend to be instrumentalized by those who, all of a sudden, in this case, have openly called on the Church to 'intervene'.
He spoke to everyone, calling out all sides of the controversy, without enlisting himself on any side. It is Benedict XVI's line, who, from when this episode first developed, let it be known that the proper Church agency to address it is the Italian bishops conference.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/01/2011 20:18]