VATICAN CITY, April 16 (Portal) – Pope Francis on Sunday dismissed as offensive and unfounded what he called allegations by the brother of a Vatican schoolgirl who disappeared 40 years ago about one of his predecessors as pope, Saint John Paul II.
Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican usher, did not return home on June 22, 1983 after a music lesson in Rome. She was 15 at the time and living with her family in the Vatican. Her disappearance is one of Italy’s most enduring mysteries.
The case entered a new chapter on Tuesday when her brother Pietro met with Vatican Attorney General Alessandro Diddi, to whom Francis has given free rein to get to the bottom of the case.
After speaking with Diddi for more than eight hours, Pietro Orlandi appeared on a television program in which he played part of an audio recording with the voice of a man whom Orlandi said was part of an organized crime group that Italian media had reported on for decades speculate involved in the disappearance of his sister.
The alleged gangster’s voice says that more than 40 years ago, girls were brought to the Vatican to be molested and that Pope John Paul knew about it.
Orlandi then said in his own words on the show, “They tell me Wojtyla (last name of Pope John Paul II) went out in the evening with two Polish monsignors and it certainly wasn’t to bless houses.”
The comments caused a storm and were condemned by Vatican officials in the past few days, before the Pope himself joined the fray in his midday address to some 20,000 people in St. Peter’s Square.
“Certainly interpreting the sentiments of believers from around the world, I offer a grateful thought in memory of John Paul, who has been the object of offensive and unfounded allegations these days,” Francis said.
The mostly Italian audience erupted in applause.
Diddi summoned Pietro Orlandi’s lawyer, Laura Sgro, on Saturday. The Vatican said she was invoking attorney-client privilege. Sgro told Portal on Sunday that John Paul did not appear in her conversation with Diddi, adding in a text message: “I have never questioned the holiness of John Paul II”.
Orlandi told Portal by phone on Sunday that it was “right for Francis to defend John Paul II.” Orlandi added that during the television appearance he “repeated what others had said. I certainly didn’t see it myself”.
Vatican editorial director Andrea Tornielli previously condemned Orlandi’s remarks as “sordid” slander of the pope, who headed the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 and was canonized in 2014.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was John Paul’s secretary during his tenure, called Orlandi’s actions “unworthy, unrealistic, ridiculous if not tragic, even criminal.”
Over the past four decades, graves have been opened, bones exhumed from forgotten burial sites and conspiracy theories abound to try to find out what has become of Emanuela Orlandi.
The case, which has been the subject of ongoing investigations in Italy and the Vatican, has garnered renewed global attention following the release of the Netflix series Vatican Girl late last year.
She would be 55 now.
(This story has been reposted in paragraph 1 to make it clear that John Paul II was not the immediate predecessor of Pope Francis.)
Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Philippa Fletcher
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