Bishops criticize Berlusconis' public spat

ROME, May 5 (UPI) -- Roman Catholic bishops said Tuesday Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cannot call for privacy after flaunting his personal life.

An editorial in L'Avvenire, the daily of the bishops' association, also attacked Veronica Lario, Berlusconi's wife, for going public with their marital difficulties, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Berlusconi, 72, met Lario, now 52, in 1980 when he saw her dancing topless in one of his theaters and eventually divorced his first wife to marry her.

''Politics and showbiz, in a deathly attack, have shown the worst of themselves," the bishops said.

Lario went public with allegations that Berlusconi recruited young women from show business to run as candidates for the European parliament. If Berlusconi was planning such a move, he dropped it because of the publicity.

''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, saying it showed a "somewhat unscrupulous approach to power."