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	Italian Sparring Continues on BBC Sex-Abuse Program Catholic World News May 22, 2007 http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=51301 Rome, May. 22, 2007 (CWNews.com) - An official of the Italian private television network Mediaset has said that the network will broadcast a controversial BBC program on sexual abuse and the Vatican, if the state-run RAI network refuses to do so. "If RAI doesn't want it, we'll buy it," said Enrico Mentana. The Mediaset network is owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, The general secretary of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI), Bishop Giuseppe Betori, has said that Church leaders are only pushing for accurate coverage of the issue. "We don't want censorship," he said, "but if the documentary should be broadcast in Italy, we would like to make it clear that it contains falsehoods." Bishop Betori said that the BCC program-- which was aired in England last October, to heavy criticism from Church leaders there-- misleads viewers into believing that Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) was directly involved in preparing the Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis. That document was released by the Holy Office-- now known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith-- in 1962, at a time when the Joseph Ratzinger was a young priest and theology professor. It was almost 20 years later, in 1981, that then-Cardinal Ratzinger became prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The leader of Italy’s Christian Democrat Party, Pierferdinando Casini, has joined the public critics of the BBC program. Casini stated, “I do not understand why the BBC broadcast this documentary, but we do not have to imitate them, acquiring the program with taxpayers’ money."
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