After 40 years the Vatican reopens the case of Emanuela Orlandi, one of its greatest mysteries

The Vatican has decided to reopen the investigation into one of the its greatest mysteries peers: the disappearance in the center of Rome on 22 June 1983 of a 15-year-old girl, Vatican citizen and daughter of an employee of the Holy See, named Emanuela Orlandi.

A mountain of strangers for the disappearance due to kidnapping and the probable death of the young woman weighs like a giant stone on the prestige of the Vatican. three popes have succeeded without knowing anything. The three are John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Pope Joseph Ratzinger, who just passed away 10 days ago, and Francisco, the reigning Argentine pontiff.

The three are portrayed together in a photomontage next to which Emanuela is seen playing the flute. On the afternoon of that June 22nd, Orlandi went to a music class next to the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare and was last seen inside a car driven by an unknown person.

Saturday 14, when Emanuela should be 55 years old, there will be a protest organized by his family. His older brother Pietro, a tireless fighter to discover the truth, promotes the act with the manifesto of the three popes and Emanuela, which reads: “Silence made them accomplices.”

The reopening of the case

The Vatican Promoter of Justice (fiscal) Alexander Vidi announced that it has decided to reopen the investigation into Orlandi’s disappearance. The news caused a sensation because the case is also one of the great mysteries of Italian history, which since 1983 has returned from time to time to center stage with alleged sensational discoveries, new accomplices and…The persistent silence of the Vatican.

The decision of the Vatican prosecutor quotes “family requests”, but lawyer Laura Sgró, who has kept the case pending before public opinion, said she filed complaints in 2018 and 2019 and that a year ago she asked for a meeting. “nobody warned us We learned about the decision to officially reopen the investigation through the press,” Sgró said.

Some news on the Orlandi case it is explosive. Netflix recently launched its multi-million viewing audience “The Vatican”the “Vatican Girl”, with triggering investigations that include those within the Vatican itself and the mafia organization known as knitted bandsuspected of having carried out the seizure to put pressure on the Vatican due to “unholy” operations carried out with the IOR, the bank of the Holy See, in the difficult times in which it was headed by the American archbishop Paul Marcinkus.

“Emanuela is alive”

From time to time, the former Turkish terrorist Ali Agca, who in May 1982 attacked Pope John Paul II and almost shot him dead in the middle of St. Peter’s Square, again intervenes in the case, raising great storms.

Agca who proclaimed himself Jesus Christ and after twenty years in prison he was pardoned and lives in Turkeysays today that Emanuela “is alive” and can reappear.

The Vatican Promoter of Justice Alessandro Diddi said they will be reopened all investigations made by the Holy See. Pedro Orlandi, brother of the kidnapped woman, said that “the decision is positive” and that “it is necessary to start from the beginning with the investigations that take into account the evidence and indications that have emerged”.

In all these uncertain years, from time to time report possible remains of Emanuela and research becomes the theme of the day. In 2012 a complaint led to the discovery in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare, next to the Italian Senate, of the remains of Enrico De Pedis, who had been the leader of the Magliana gang until his assassination. Emanuela’s remains were searched but could not be found.

In July 2019, the most spectacular quest. Faced with complaints that The Teutonic Cemetery in the Vatican found the remains of Emanuela, they were opened the tombs of two German princesses, which were empty. The “palace” of the Vatican embassy in Italy was also searched.

The sexual abuse hypothesis

Another version states that Emanuela had told a friend that a high-ranking clergyman at the Vatican made sexual references to her that left her feeling concerned. The even the themed sex floats in the case.

With the support of the Orlandi family, the Italian parliamentarians led by Carlo Calenda launched the idea of ​​creating a commission of inquiry of deputies and senators to shed definitive light on the case. The initiative is receiving a lot of support inside and outside Parliament.

Many are those who believe that the Vatican’s true intentions are to prove it the truth will never be discovered. Monsignor Giancarlo Girotti, regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, invited us not to get too many illusions.

“I believe that the Promoter of Justice is reopening the investigation in order to put an end to what will continue to be a mystery”.

Unexpectedly in the case of the Orlandi kidnapping, the secretary of pope emeritus Benedict XVI, monsignor Georg Gaensweinwho is also Prefect of the Papal Household.

In the week following Joseph Ratzinger’s death, Gaenswein starred in a starring role with his attacks on Pope Francis. In interviews he said that the Argentine pontiff “broke the heart” of the emeritus by practically nullifying Benedict XVI’s decision to restore the Tridentine Mass. He also made other allegations.

Gaenswein will present on Thursday the 12th a book bomb of memoirs entitled “Nothing but the truth”. in one of the chapters deals with the case of Emanuela Orlandi and a diary revealed that he wrote: “They’ve guaranteed it to me over the years everything possible had been done for helping the Orlandi family and from all the information I made communications for Pope Benedict”.

Gaenswein tells more in the chapter dedicated to the kidnapping of the “Vatican Girl”, as the Netflix series called it, which globalized spread of this great mystery.

Monsignor Gaenswein was received by the Pope on Monday and nothing was reported. Nor the duration of the hearing. His fate is a little mystery. But the Vatican will surely have to summon him to say more than he knows about the Orlandi case.

Vatican correspondent

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