A war of words between the Roman Catholic Church and Silvio Berlusconi’s clan heated up Saturday as reports said the row had led to the Vatican cancelling a meeting between its number two official and the Italian prime minister.
The reports said the Vatican had called off the talks scheduled for late Friday after the newspaper headed by Berlusconi’s brother Paolo attacked the boss of the Italian Catholic bishops’ daily, Avvenire, a persistent critic of the prime minister’s sexual peccadillos.
[b]peccadillo[/b] (pÄ›k’É™-dÄl’Å) a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault. [Spanish pecadillo, diminutive of pecado, sin, and Italian peccadiglio, diminutive of peccato, sin, both from Latin peccÄtum, from neuter of peccÄtus, past participle of peccÄre, to sin; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]
Paolo Berlusconi should know the meaning of peccadillo and know that an affair of a 72 with an 18 year old is NOT a pecadillo.
‘Affair’ is also too nice a word, robroy.
The age thing doesn’t seem so bad to me as is the head of a media empire preying upon women recently emerged from childhood.
Berlusconi is a world-class scoundrel. He is an unprincipled, corrupt opportunist. He has also done much to squander historical opportunities for real reform of Italian politics.