The Vatican is cooperating with a new inquest by the City of Rome into the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the teenage daughter of an employee of the Prefecture of the Papal Household whose family lived in a Vatican apartment. Source: Crux.
Rome prosecutors have opened a fresh investigation into the disappearance of the teenager 40 years ago, and are calling for full collaboration from the Vatican, Italian media reported on Monday.
The new inquiry follows the opening of a Vatican investigation last December. The Italian Parliament is considering its own probe.
Orlandi’s case recently was publicised by the Netflix series Vatican Girl, and most observers credit the flurry of new investigations, at least in part, to the heightened public interest created by the documentary.
The chief prosecutor of Rome announced the new investigation this week. It will be the third such probe by the Roman procurator’s office in the 40 years since Orlandi disappeared. The first unfolded between 1983 and 1997, and the second from 2008 to 2015.
That second investigation was closed in 2015 by the chief prosecutor of Rome at the time.
Italian news agency Ansa reported yesterday that the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice, Alessandro Diddi, has turned over files from his investigation to Stefano Luciani, the official in the Rome procurator’s office now responsible for the new Orlandi review.
Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela who’s devoted his life to the search for the truth about his sister’s disappearance, told reporters the Vatican’s cooperation with the Roman probe is a departure from the past.
The Vatican has always rejected charges of stonewalling investigations into the Orlandi case. In a 2012 statement, then-Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi insisted the Vatican has cooperated with Italian authorities from the start.
The 40th anniversary of Orlandi’s disappearance will fall on June 22.
FULL STORY
Vatican cooperates with new Rome probe of ‘Vatican Girl’ case (Crux)
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