The Vatican newspaper yesterday stressed that children should be raised by a father and a mother after Italy’s top appeals court granted a gay mother custody of her son, prompting a debate over gay adoption.

ITALIAN premier Silvio Berlusconi defended his lifestyle and fondness for young women, telling a trade fair in Milan yesterday it was “better to be passionate about a beautiful girl than a gay”.

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi today dismissed calls to resign over his involvement with a runaway under-age Moroccan girl and created new uproar by claiming it was better to love beautiful girls than gays.

The Vatican defended its latest attempt to keep men with “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies from becoming priests, but said there would be no crackdown on gays already ordained.

POPE Benedict XVI is likely to be even more strict than his predecessor, John Paul II, on questions regarding the use of condoms to prevent the spread of Aids, gay rights activists said.