After recently announcing that he plans on suing local and foreign media outlets, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will not be having dinner with the Vatican after they cancelled the meeting, according to
The Telegraph, which now heightens tensions between both parties.
Vatican officials were reportedly upset with a newspaper,
Il Giornale, owned by the Berlusconi family, attacking an editor of Catholic daily, which has criticized the Prime Minister's love of showgirls and young starlets. The cancellation, three hours before the dinner was set to take place, dashed Berlusconi's hope of rapprochement with the Vatican.
The Prime Minister was set to take part in a religious service, along side with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, second in seniority to the Pope, for the remission of sins in L'Aquila, which is a mountain in Italy that was extremely devastated by an earthquake in the spring of this year.
Berlusconi's office confirmed that he would not be attending L'Aquila at all. One official said, "I can't remember a darker day in relations between this government and the Church."
