Berlusconi embodied different traits of Italian culture, both traditional and innovative. Trained at the Salesian schools, he has always paid lip service to his Catholic upbringing and faith.

His love for football as president of AC Milan for many years made him connect with the average Italian. When the political system collapsed in the early 90s, he presented himself as a centrist politician against the threat of “Communism” taking over Italian politics. This was his more traditional side appealing to cultural “conservatives”.

But Berlusconi was also an innovator, in many ways a cultural “revolutionary”. He understood the power of media and set up his own TV empire using it as a platform for his political career. Through his TVs he shaped the public imagination and fed the consumerist, individualistic and sexually disoriented culture of our days.

As a successful businessman, tycoon and politician he presented himself as the post-modern hero and self-made man, often times showing frustrations toward the rule of law, the democratic process, and the standards of public morality for a politician.

In this sense he was also a populist who liked to have an “immediate” contact (via his TV) with the public and blamed “the politicians”, “the bureaucrats”, and “the judges” for stopping his bright plans. There is a sense in which Berlusconi polarised the public opinion in lovers and haters.

This ongoing fight between him and his opposers has caused a stand-still in Italian politics. He certainly had a conflated ego and was the post-modern embodiment of what Augustine meant when talking about the danger of 'amor sui' (love of self) as opposed to 'amor Dei' (love of God).

How evangelical Christians saw Berlusconi

Berlusconi had many faces and evangelicals tended to focus on one of them, finding it difficult to have a unified picture. Some saw his lifestyle as the pinnacle of immorality if not debauchery. Others disliked his personality cult.

Still others appreciated his “conservative” political views which (on paper at least) favored free market and entrepreneurship. The reality is that Berlusconi was a complex and multifaceted figure.

His TV channels never showed a hint of openness towards religious minorities

His TV channels never showed a hint of openness towards religious minorities. Berlusconi mirrored the decay of Italian culture trying to honour traditional Roman Catholic status quo while pushing a secular agenda, without being open to a season of spiritual reformation.

Leonardo de Chirico, author and evangelical pastor in Rome.