Italian Prime Minister. Photo: Lorenza e Vincenzo Iaconianni

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been criticised after being caught telling a joke about Jews and the Second World War. A senior Vatican figure lambasted the statesman after he was recorded talking to a group of youths outside his home in Rome. The video, in which Berlusconi jokes about a Jewish family hiding another Jew for a high rent without telling them the war was over, appeared on the website of the Italian newspaper La Reppublica. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis told the paper Berlusconi should “apologise to all Italians, first of all to believers,” adding that the damage can be “irreparable” if a senior public figure offends part of the public.