Italy editor quits in row over PM

By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Rome

Mr Boffo is highly regarded within the Church

The editor of Avvenire, a leading Italian Catholic newspaper, has quit in a bitter row involving the country's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Dino Boffo said his family and professional life had been "raped" in a "barbaric" attack by Il Giornale, a paper owned by Mr Berlusconi's family.

It said Mr Boffo was gay and had previously been accused of harassment.

As Avvenire's editor, Mr Boffo had criticised Mr Berlusconi for his alleged relationships with young women.

In one editorial, the newspaper, which speaks for Italy's Catholic bishops' conference, spoke of how Catholics were mortified by Mr Berlusconi's behaviour.

Last week, Il Giornale hit back with an article seeking to expose what it called Mr Boffo's double standards.

In a rebuttal of the accusations published in Avvenire on Thursday, Mr Boffo admitted being fined in a harassment case, but said he was not at fault, and denied suggestions of a homosexual relationship.

He said he was resigning because of the damage to his family and newspaper by Il Giornale.

'Barbaric' attack

Mr Berlusconi, who denies the allegations about the young women, has tried to distance himself from the row.

But Mr Boffo's resignation marks a new low in his relations with the Catholic Church, which is said to have been concerned for some time about the behaviour of the prime minister in his private life.

Mr Berlusconi said last month that he had nothing to hide

A planned dinner between Mr Berlusconi and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Benedict's secretary of state, was cancelled following the Il Giornale article.

Mr Berlusconi relies on the support of Catholic voters, while the Church had seen Mr Berlusconi as an ally on issues like euthanasia and abortion.

But Mr Boffo is highly regarded within the Church, and the damaging allegations about his private life will be seen as an indirect attack on the Church itself.

Opponents of Mr Berlusconi have long-argued that he is using his third term in office to challenge the authority of every element of Italian public life from the judiciary to the presidency.

But taking on the Catholic Church, especially on issues of morality, would be another matter altogether.