The Italian bishops association on Tuesday rapped Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his wife Veronica Lario for feeding a marriage-ending spat to the media.
A front-page editorial in L'Avvenire, the bishops' daily, chided Lario, 52, for voicing her disapproval of alleged moves to field showgirls in the European elections in a letter to ANSA and then turning to two of Italy's top dailies, Corriere della Sera and La Stampa, to announce divorce plans.
The editorial then claimed there was a contradiction between 72-year-old Berlusconi's use of a playboy image for political ends and his appeal for privacy over what he has called a leftwing plot to end his marriage.
In the affair, it said, ''politics and showbiz, in a deathly attack, have shown the worst of themselves''.
''The flamboyant premier, with his declared weakness for young actresses...after choosing bravado as an artifice for consensus, all of a sudden appeals for a low profile and privacy, while screaming about a plot''.
It went on to comment on what it called the ''candidature waltz,'' in which several young women with a showbiz background were reportedly groomed as prospective Euro-MPs only to be pulled at the last minute after Lario's outburst about what she called a ''shamelessly trashy'' stunt.
''We'll never know whether showgirls or starlets were lined up but the very idea of using girls as electoral bait had a depressing ring to it,'' the editorial said.
''The conception of women as mere objects is unacceptable: the supposed candidate has to be pretty, young, attractive and if possible amenable...perhaps only in strangers' eyes, but everyone knows that appearances count; and these reveal a sometimes unscrupulous approach to power''.
Leaders should largely be judged on their achievements, Avvenire said, ''but the 'stuff' of a leader, his style and the values with which he concretely fills his life, are not inconsequential. They cannot be''.
It called for ''a premier who, with sobriety, is able to be the mirror of his country's soul''.
Catholic politicians praised the bishops for taking Berlusconi to task with centrist Catholic leader Pierferdinando Casini branding Berlusconi's 'plot' claims as ''laughable''.
The Democratic Left, Italy's largest opposition party, said the bishops had ''rapped the table'' to call the centre-right premier to order.
Catholic marriage lawyers said the Berlusconis had made a mistake in ''washing their dirty linen in public''.
Berlusconi fell in love with the actress Lario, his second wife, when he saw her performing topless in 1980 at a theatre he owned.
The media magnate, currently Italy's second-richest man, divorced his first wife in 1990 to marry her.
The couple have had three children. His two children from his first marriage occupy senior positions in his business empire.
Berlusconi on Monday he wouldn't patch things up with his wife and demanded a public apology.
He told Corriere della Sera he might file a counter-suit if Lario went ahead with plans to divorce him.
Asked if his 19-year marriage to Lario could survive, he replied: ''I don't think so, and I don't know if I want it this time. Veronica will have to publicly apologise to me, and I don't know if that will be enough''.
''It's the third time she's played a trick like this during an election campaign. It's really too much'.
In a separate interview with La Stampa, the premier said there might ''even be grounds for defamation'' after she told another newspaper, La Repubblica, that she ''(could) not stay with a man who consorted with minors''.
''Those insinuations about me consorting with minors are unreadable,'' Berlusconi told La Stampa, saying he would have been ''mad'' to attend the birthday party of the 18-year-old daughter of a business associate ''if there had been anything sordid behind it''.
Berlusconi family daily Il Giornale on Tuesday published photos of Berlusconi with the girl and her parents, ''tied to the premier by a longstanding friendship''. In Monday's press interviews, Berlusconi also defended his party's selection of the allegedly 'showgirl' EP candidates, saying all six young women were qualified for the job, including the three that were pulled at the last minute.
Only one of the remaining three had worked on TV, as an announcer and actress, he told both papers.
Politicians from both sides of the political fence appeared to agree with Berlusconi Monday that the spat, which has claimed headlines in Italy and abroad, should be treated as a private affair.
But Democratic Party leader Dario Franceschini said Berlusconi should stop his ''pathetic'' claims about a leftwing plot.
The Berlusconis had another highly publicised spat two years ago when Lario demanded, and obtained, a public apology after he reportedly flirted with young women, one of whom is now his equal opportunities minister.
A year previously, Lario annoyed Berlusconi by coming out publicly against his government's restrictive assisted fertility laws ahead of a referendum.
