Silvio Berlusconi rift with Vatican widens

An emerging rift between the Vatican and Silvio Berlusconi, the embattled Italian Prime Minister, has widened further after top church figures rallied to defend Dino Boffo, the Catholic editor whose private life was the subject of renewed attack by one of the premier’s newspapers yesterday.

Il Giornale, the Berlusconi family-owned newspaper, yesterday continued with a campaign to expose Mr Boffo as a homosexual with a police record, despite growing evidence that the stories are souring an increasingly fraught relationship between the Italian leader and the Catholic church.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State and deputy to Pope Benedict XVI, telephoned Mr Boffo, editor of Avvenire, the newspaper of the Conference of Italian Bishops, the CEI, to offer his “solidarity”.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the CEI, described the attack on Mr Boffo as “disgusting”. He later added that Pope Benedict XVI had phoned him yesterday to discuss "the present situation" and had offered the head of the Italian bishops his "thanks and appreciation". More