Five Years for a Joke About the Pope?

LONDON, Sept. 18, 2008 — -- A popular Italian actress has avoided a possible five-year jail term over some off-color comments she made about Pope Benedict XVI.

An Italian prosecutor had vowed to take comedian Sabina Guzzanti to court on charges of religious slander.

At a July demonstration in Rome organized against the government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Guzzanti said, "Within 20 years the Pope will be where he ought to be -- in hell, tormented by great big poofter devils, and very active ones, not passive ones."

Rome prosecutor Giovanni Ferrara initially threatened to prosecute the actress for offending the honor of the sacred and inviolable person of the pope. Today, however, Ferrara's office announced that the case would not move forward, since Italian Justice Minister Angelino Alfano decided not to proceed with the charges.

''Despite the fact that it would be possible to proceed with the case, I have decided not to give the authorization in full knowledge of the frequency and capacity of the Pope's pardon,'' Alfano told reporters.

Under Italian law, courts can sentence people to up to five years in prison for "offending the honor" of the Pope.

Guzzanti's comment was apparently directed at the Vatican's global campaign against gay marriage, an attempt to reverse the spread of legislation in other parts of the world that allows gay couples to marry.

"In this case the satire wasn't addressed against the religion but against the opinion of the pontiff against gay rights," Italian lawyer Marco Orlando told ABC News.

But Orlando said that by venturing into the politics of gay marriage, the Vatican may have left itself open to satirical comments like Guzzanti's.

"I believe that the very moment the Vatican decides to step in a political controversy and gives its opinion against a draft law meant to acknowledge the rights of a gay couple, it is exposed to the same satirical comments as any other public figure expressing the same political views. The satire in this case was meant to target a political opinion and not a religious view," Orlando said.