A speech by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco to fellow bishops did not specifically name Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi but he left little doubt he was referring to the sex and corruption scandals that dog the prime minister and his centre-right government.
"It is mortifying to witness behaviour that not only goes counter to public decorum but is intrinsically sad and hollow," said the head of the Italian Bishops Conference.
Cardinal Bagnasco said Italians had been left in a state of "dumbfounded astonishment" by a ruling political class that was enmeshed in scandal and preoccupied with self-preservation while the country suffered from an economic crisis.
"The image is one of a country that is estranged, without impulse, as if everyone is waiting for the inevitable," he said. » | Monday, September 26, 2011
