ROME – Religious leaders called on Silvio Berlusconi to clean up his act as the beleaguered Italian prime minister clung to the support on Friday of his key allies in the midst of a raging sex scandal.
As his lawyers submitted a petition challenging the competency of Milan magistrates who have accused him of paying for sex with an underage girl, pundits said he could yet defy the political obituary writers once again. But with even the pope taking an apparent dig at Berlusconi, the 74-year-old premier’s attempts to shrug off the scandal were not bearing fruit. While not mentioning Berlusconi by name, Pope Benedict XVI’s call for an upholding of “ethical principles” during an audience with Rome’s police was widely interpreted as a message to the prime minister.
“The new challenges on the horizon require God and man to meet again, and society and public institutions to rediscover their souls, their spiritual and moral roots,” Benedict said. A feeling of insecurity generated by change is enhanced “by a weakening of the perception of ethical principles that are the basis of law and personal moral attitudes,” he said.
