After initially expressing hope that a Vatican investigation into his sister’s disappearance more than 40 years ago reflected “a desire of Pope Francis for the truth”, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi is now voicing “no confidence” in the probe. Source: Crux.
“I don’t have faith in the Vatican investigation,” Pietro Orlandi, the older brother of Emanuela, told a gathering in Sicily dedicated to combatting anti-female violence on August 24.
Instead, Mr Orlandi said that his hopes now reside with two other parallel investigations of his sister’s case, one being conducted by Rome’s chief prosecutor and the other by a bipartisan panel of the Italian parliament.
“Hope for arriving at the truth is growing,” Mr Orlandi said, despite his scepticism about the Vatican. “It’s important to talk about it in the schools, because I find in young people a sense of justice that adults often don’t have.”
Mr Orlandi also denied recent speculation in the Italian media regarding a supposed private encounter with Pope Francis, saying the only time he’s met the pontiff was days after his election in April 2013 in front of the Vatican’s Church of St Anne.
“Despite making many requests, I’ve never been given the possibility” of a private session with the pontiff, Orlandi said.
The 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, whose father was a minor official in the Prefecture of the Papal Household and whose family lived in a Vatican apartment near the barracks of the Swiss Guards, has become a magnet for speculation and conspiracy theories over the years.
The case has been variously linked to the 1981 assassination attempt against St John Paul II, the Vatican bank scandals of the 1980s, alleged ties between the Vatican and the mafia, and rumours of a paedophile ring operating within the Vatican.
The popularity of a 2022 Netflix documentary on the Orlandi affair titled Vatican Girl created new pressure on both civil and ecclesiastical authorities to take a new look, culminating in a January 2023 announcement by the Vatican’s top prosecutor, veteran Italian attorney Alessandro Diddi, that his office was opening an investigation.
Mr Orlandi told the gathering in Sicily: “We will never resign ourselves to the disappearance of my sister. We will continue to fight to know the truth.”
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‘Vatican Girl’ brother voices no confidence in Vatican probe of her fate (Crux)
