- Feb 5, 2002
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ROME – Pope Francis has repeated his own desire that the truth surrounding the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi finally emerge, just as the Italian Parliament is gearing up to launch a large-scale investigation of the infamous “Vatican Girl” case.
“In the Vatican, we are still suffering greatly from the disappearance, more than forty years ago, of one of our citizens, Emanuela Orlandi, who was fifteen years old at the time,” the Pope said, noting that an inquiry has been opened at the Vatican to “shed light on the story and bring out the truth”.
He added: “I continue to pray for her and her family, especially her mother…I would like every family that is mourning the loss of one of their own to feel my closeness. I am at their side.”
The Pope’s comments come in the new book Life: My Story Through History, a semi-autobiographical treatment of the pontiff’s life in conversation with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona.
For decades, the Orlandi case has been perhaps the most notorious unresolved mysteries related to the Vatican, as well as a perennial source of speculation and conspiracy theories.
The daughter of a minor official of the Vatican’s Prefecture of the Papal Household, whose family lived in an apartment on Vatican grounds, Orlandi vanished after a music lesson on 22 June 1983.
Over the years, her disappearance has been variously linked to the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, Cold War intrigue, the Italian mafia and the Vatican bank scandals, and, more recently, to the clerical sexual abuse crisis, though to date none of those theories has been confirmed.
Continued below.
catholicherald.co.uk
“In the Vatican, we are still suffering greatly from the disappearance, more than forty years ago, of one of our citizens, Emanuela Orlandi, who was fifteen years old at the time,” the Pope said, noting that an inquiry has been opened at the Vatican to “shed light on the story and bring out the truth”.
He added: “I continue to pray for her and her family, especially her mother…I would like every family that is mourning the loss of one of their own to feel my closeness. I am at their side.”
The Pope’s comments come in the new book Life: My Story Through History, a semi-autobiographical treatment of the pontiff’s life in conversation with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona.
For decades, the Orlandi case has been perhaps the most notorious unresolved mysteries related to the Vatican, as well as a perennial source of speculation and conspiracy theories.
The daughter of a minor official of the Vatican’s Prefecture of the Papal Household, whose family lived in an apartment on Vatican grounds, Orlandi vanished after a music lesson on 22 June 1983.
Over the years, her disappearance has been variously linked to the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, Cold War intrigue, the Italian mafia and the Vatican bank scandals, and, more recently, to the clerical sexual abuse crisis, though to date none of those theories has been confirmed.
Continued below.
Pope calls for truth about ‘Vatican Girl’ as Italian Parliament launches probe - Catholic Herald
ope Francis has repeated his own desire that the truth surrounding the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi should emerge, just as the Italian parliament is gearing up to launch a large-scale investigation of the infamous “Vatican girl” case.
catholicherald.co.uk
