The 40-year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi deepened after her brother Pietro Orlandi met Vatican City’s chief prosecutor Alessandro Diddi and released an audio recording which said Emanuela’s disappearance was linked to the Italian mafia and that organised crime groups brought girls to the Vatican, who were then molested by the clergy.
The case entered a new chapter last week when Pietro appeared at a TV programme and played an audio recording of a man who claims to be a gangster.
The Italian media for decades have speculated that organised crime groups could be behind Emanuela’s disappearance.
Pope Francis has asked Vatican chief prosecutor Alessandro Diddi to get to the bottom of the case.
The audio recording was given to Italian media after an eight-hour long meeting between Diddi and Pietro.
Pietro then said: “They tell me Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II’s surname) used to go out in the evenings with two Polish monsignors and it certainly was not to bless houses.”
After streaming giant Netflix released the documentary ‘Vatican Girl’, which explored the theories around the Orlandi case, the inquiries into the disappearance have been reinitiated.
The documentary featured a childhood friend of Emanuela who alleged that she was molested by “someone close to the pope”, who at the time was John Paul II.
There is another theory which says Emanuela was taken to London and she lived in a youth hostel there in a youth hostel owned by a Catholic congregation. It also says that the expenses were funded by the Vatican and that Emanuela died in London. It also claims that her body was returned to Rome and buried in the Vatican.
However, when police exhumed and reopened two tombs in the Vatican in 2019, no human remains were found.
Several other theories have emerged about the disappearance of Emanuela, linking the incident to Vatican’s financial scandals and an alleged sex ring run by Vatican police and Rome’s criminal underworld.
What is the Emanuela Orlandi Disappearance Case?
Emanuela Orlandi, daughter of a Vatican employee who lived within the walls of the Vatican City, disappeared in the summer of 1983 while on her way home from a music lesson in Rome.
Forty years later, her disappearance continues to intrigue Italians.
How Has Pope Francis Reacted?
Pope Francis called Pietro’s claims “offensive and unfounded” during a congregation and made his views public on the sensitive issue. Pietro’s claims were denounced by other senior officials of the Vatican but Pope Francis entered the fray this weekend during this week’s noon address to about 20,000 people in St Peter’s Square.
“Certain that I’m interpreting the sentiments of the faithful from all over the world, I express a grateful thought to the memory of St. John Paul, who in these days has been the object of offensive and unfounded insinuations,” Francis said, according to Reuters, the crowd, mostly Italian, broke into applause.
(with inputs from the Guardian, Reuters and Associated Press)
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