ITALY: Cell Phone Ad Riles Catholics

Some Italians Catholics are incensed over the below 10-second cell phone ad in which a man resembling Jesus asks "Dad" for help in escaping a dominatrix.

"It's a sordid concept and incredibly insulting to those who believe in Jesus Christ," said an editorial in Avvenire, a daily newspaper owned by the Catholic Bishops Conference. The newspaper's editor, Marco Tarquinio, said the commercial should never have been made. He suggested that Catholics offended by the ad should stop watching the channel and boycott the company's products. An association of Catholic television viewers, Aiart, made a formal protest over the commercial. "The reference to Christ is explicit and deeply offensive to religious sentiment," it said in a statement.

A Gay Prime Minister For Italy?

As anti-gay Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faces a confidence vote due, in part, to his infamous dalliances with numerous prostitutes, his possible replacement appears to be Nichi Vendola, the openly gay governor of the southern Italian state of Apulia. Via Washington Post:

The governor of Apulia, a region in the heel of the Italian boot, wore a gray checked suit, purple paisley scarf and glittering black shoes strapped with Velcro. From his left ear hung a sparkling diamond hoop given to him by his partner, Ed. Around his left thumb he wore a gold band, the gift of a southern fisherman upon winning his first shock-the-establishment election. "Nichi!" yelled a woman who ran up to shake the graying 52-year-old's hand. "You speak the truth!" Farther down Rome's broad Via del Tritone, a class of high school students looked up stunned and squealed, "Ciao, Nichi!" A deeper voice shouted from across the street, "Get rid of them all, Nichi!" Vendola, who nonchalantly assesses himself as "beloved," smiled the drowsy-eyed grin of a man who has seen all this adoration before. But this crisp December morning was different. Inside the Montecitorio palace, the lower house of Parliament and Vendola's destination, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced a career-threatening confidence vote. Many of the frustrated Italians gathering in the surrounding squares hoped this gay, Catholic, ex-communist poet whom the media has dubbed - partly in jest and partly in earnest - "the white Obama" would take the premier's place. Improbably, Vendola is positioned to become the next leader of Italy.

Vendola says that in Italy, Catholicism is "more cultural than religious" and he even counts nuns among his supporters. But according to the above-linked story, Vendola is a frequent target of television comedians who mock his lisp and his meandering, metaphor-laden style of speaking. A regular feature in one newspaper is a column titled, "Nichi, What The Hell Are You Talking About?"

Italy's Garbage Crisis Worsens

Garbage hasn't been collected for weeks in Naples and blame is being directed towards Italy's prime minister.

The rotting garbage piled up on the streets of Naples has become an enduring symbol to Italians of the many problems facing Silvio Berlusconi’s crumbling conservative government. The prime minister came to power as a “Mr. Fix It” less than three years ago vowing to clean up a mess that his centre-left predecessor had failed to sort out, and often cites the clearing of Naples’ streets as one of his biggest successes. He even held his first cabinet meeting there, promising a break with past administrations that had failed to solve the chronic rubbish problem in Campania—the poor, southern region of which Naples is the capital. Halfway into his term, facing the prospect of early elections due to the implosion of his centre-right coalition and a string of sex and graft scandals, Berlusconi is seeing Naples’ trash back on the front pages of newspapers and TV bulletins. “Naples garbage? It’s just like two years ago,” read the headline of the daily La Stampa on Tuesday.

Berlusconi is probably too busy chasing underage girls and making homophobic remarks. Check out these astounding photos of poor Naples.

Italy's PM: I May Have The Hots for Teen Girls, But At Least I'm Not A Homo

Fending off charges of an improper relationship with a 17 year-old girl, 74 year-old Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is defending his "appreciation" for young girls by saying "at least it's better than being gay."

"As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay," he told a meeting at a motorcycle industry show in Milan. "You should be completely reassured about the government and about the fact that it's a government that still has a majority that intends to govern until the end of its term," he said. Mr Berlusconi, who has tangled with the media over parties and women in the past, has been under increasing pressure since newspapers last week carried reports about the teenager who attended parties at his sumptuous villa at Arcore near Milan. The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported details of a phone call it said Mr Berlusconi made to a Milan police chief on Ruby's behalf when she was detained over a separate theft incident in May, raising questions of whether he improperly intervened. Mr Berlusconi says he helped Ruby, whose real name is reported by Italian newspapers to be Karima El Mahroug, but he denies exerting any improper pressure on police officers.

The Italian LGBT rights group Arcigay fires back.

“It is inacceptable – says Paolo Patanè, Arcigay’s National President - that a Prime Minister, in an obvious situation of difficulties because of his senile passions, pronounces such a homophobic and vulgar nonsense statement, insulting lesbian, gay and trans. We are not willing to become the scapegoat of a weak Prime Minister that with this statement shows that he belongs to a really old culture. Silvio Berlusconi’s way of representing the institution dishonours Italy and his ‘macho latino’ rudeness is among the causes of the grotesque climate in the country.” Arcigay immediately calls for an official apology from the Prime Minister and looks forward to meeting him to clarify this statement that truly offends homosexuals, their families, their friends and, in its utilitarian view, all the women. Arcigay has also written an urgent letter to the Minister for Equality Mara Carfagna, to ask her to stigmatize Berlusconi’s words that are still putting Italy in embarrassment in all Europe and the rest of the world.

Italian Minister Of Family Policy: Gay Adoption Leads To Human Trafficking

Italy's Minister of Family Policy says that allowing gay couples to adopt leads to children being bought and sold. The Catholic News Agency happily reports the message of Carlo Giovanardi:

In the interview with political analyst Klaus Davi, Giovanardi noted that “where the adoption by gay couples is allowed, such as in the U.S. and Brazil,” the countries have exploded with the “buying and selling of children.” “It is something that at least this government will never accept and I want to denounce it from here.” “To impose two parents of the same sex on a child is to subject that child to psychological violence,” Giovanardi continued. “A child has the right to grow up” in an environment where “a paternal and maternal figure complement each other and guarantee the child balanced development,” he added.

Giorgio Moroder Turns 70

A reader tipped me that today is three-time Oscar, three-time Grammy winner Giorgio Moroder's 70th birthday. So in honor of my all-time favorite producer, here's a bit of his early work from the mid-late 70s. The first clip is a cheesily announced promo clip from Casablanca Records, but it's worth a look just to see how enormous the early synths that Moroder used were. I've been buying his records for 35 years!

No Gay Marriage For Italy

Italy's highest court has issued its ruling and the news isn't good.

The Constitutional Court judged the requests related to gay unions "not admissible" and "unfounded," according to an e- mailed statement today. Courts in the northern cities of Trento and Venice had asked the court in Rome to rule on the matter. The motivation for the decision will be published in coming days. Italy is one of the few western European countries without legislation on same-sex couples. The only Italian attempt to rule on civil unions was a bill proposed by former Prime Minister Romano Prodi's administration in 2007. It was never approved by parliament amid opposition from Prodi's own allies and the Catholic Church.

The Vatican has exerted fierce pressure upon Italian legislators to ensure that the issue never comes up for a parliamentary vote. The bejeweled elderly men in embroidered dresses win again.

ITALY: Gay Marriage Ruling Due

Italy's Constitutional Court is expected to rule this week on an appeal from two gay couples who were denied the right to marry. The decision may come as soon as tomorrow. The Vatican has pressured politicians to keep the issue from coming to a vote, but a positive ruling from the nation's highest court could side-step legislative approval.

RELATED: Portugal's Constitutional Court signed off last week on a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. The president must now sign or veto the bill. If he vetoes it, Parliament is widely expected to simply pass it again, which, under Portugal's Constitution, forces presidential assent.

ALSO RELATED: Seven countries around the world presently offer full same-sex marriage rights: Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, South Africa, Belgium, Norway, and Sweden. Many other nations, most of them in western Europe, offer civil unions or domestic partnerships, often with nearly the same legal rights as opposite marriage.

Italian Bishop: It's The Jews' Fault

Italian Bishop Giacomo Babini continues the Catholic Church's pedophilia blame game:

The latest attempt to deflect culpability and accountability and protect Pope Benedict XVI is drenched in vile anti-semitism and represents a new low — even for the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Giacomo Babini, an emeritus bishop of Grosseto, Italy, believes recent criticism of Pope Benedict XVI’s failure to deal with known pedophile priests, he believes is a “Zionist attack.” Speaking on the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: “They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers.”

Here's the original article in Italian.