Berlusconi, Vatican officials meet amid scandal

ROME - An annual celebration of the 1929 treaty that governs relations between Italy and the Vatican is taking an awkward turn, with Premier Silvio Berlusconi, engulfed in a prostitution scandal, due to mingle Friday with the Vatican's No 2. official.

Berlusconi has come under criticism from the Catholic church as the scandal centering on his alleged encounters with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl has unfolded. The 74-year-old leader was recently indicted on charges he paid for sex with the girl, and then abused his influence to cover it up.

Italy's Berlusconi indicted on sex charges

Berlusconi denies the charges.

The Italian premier and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, will lead respective delegations at the ceremony later in the day to mark the anniversary of the Lateran Pacts.

In comments last month, Bertone said the Vatican was concerned about the scandal and following its developments attentively. He called for a "more robust morality, a sense of justice and legality" among everyone, particularly those in public office.

Pope Benedict XVI has not mentioned the scandal directly, though he did say last month that public officials must "rediscover their spiritual and moral roots."

The Vatican's criticism is a blow to Berlusconi, whose conservative coalition had gained the church's favor thanks to its pro-church positions on family, life and social issues.

Still, Berlusconi has so far survived a scandal that would have forced most European leaders to step down. Newspapers have been filled for weeks with revelations of allegedly sex-fueled parties at Berlusconi's villas, with topless women dancing around.

Berlusconi is going on trial April 6 in Milan on charges that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl and then tried to cover it up. Berlusconi has stood trial on a number of business-related charges, but this is the first time he is being tried for personal conduct.

Prosecutors allege Berlusconi paid for sex with Karima el-Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby, then used his influence to get her out of police custody when she was detained for the unrelated suspected theft of €3,000 ($4,103). They allege that Berlusconi called police the night of May 27-28 because he feared that her relationship to him would be revealed.

Both Berlusconi and Ruby have denied a sexual relationship. Berlusconi denied he exerted undue pressure when he called Milan police in May to seek the release of the woman, who had been detained for an unrelated theft.

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Judge Cristina Di Censo handed down the indictment with a terse statement. The trial will be heard by a panel of three judges, all of them women. The decision means Di Censo believes there is sufficient evidence to subject Berlusconi to an immediate trial, as had been requested by prosecutors. The speeded-up procedure skips the preliminary hearing stage and is ordered in cases of overwhelming evidence.

The opposition pressed its case for Berlusconi's resignation again this week.

"Leave the premiership, let us not be the laughing stock of the world," said Alessandro Maran of the leading opposition Democratic Party. "Free Italy."

Paying for sex with a prostitute is not a crime in Italy, but it is if the prostitute is under 18.

The child prostitution charge carries a possible prison sentence of six months to three years. The abuse of influence charge, which experts say is more dangerous for Berlusconi, carries a possible sentence of four to 12 years.

Berlusconi insists he will finish his term, which ends in 2013.

The premier has been working — successfully — to improve his parliamentary majority, which was eroded after a split with a longtime ally, Gianfranco Fini, who commands a few dozen lawmakers in parliament.Some of the lawmakers who had initially followed Fini are now going back to Berlusconi's side.

The Lateran Pact was signed in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, giving the Roman Catholic Church many privileges in Italy. In 1984, the Vatican and the Italian government, led then by the late Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi, agreed to a revised pact that eliminated Roman Catholicism as Italy's state religion.