In a significant development, the Vatican announced on Thursday that new leads have surfaced in the case of Emanuela Orlandi, the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee who went missing 40 years ago. This renewed hope of finding answers to one of the Holy See’s enduring mysteries comes four decades after Orlandi disappeared on June 22, 1983, after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment for a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See.
Over the years, Orlandi’s disappearance has been linked to various theories, including the plot to assassinate St. John Paul II, a Vatican bank financial scandal, and Rome’s criminal underworld.
Alessandro Diddi, the Vatican’s criminal prosecutor, stated that he recently handed over all the relevant evidence that he had gathered in the past six months to prosecutors in Rome as part of the reopened investigation into Orlandi’s disappearance. He expressed his commitment to continuing the pursuit of this case. Last year, the interest in the case was reignited due to the release of the four-part Netflix documentary, “Vatican Girl,” which explored different scenarios surrounding her disappearance and featured new testimony from a friend of Orlandi. This friend claimed that Orlandi had confided in her about a high-ranking Vatican cleric making sexual advances towards her a week before she vanished.
The release of the documentary prompted Orlandi’s family, with support from lawmakers, to push for an Italian parliamentary commission of inquiry. Concurrently, both the Vatican and Rome prosecutor’s offices reopened the investigation. Giuseppe Pignatone, the previous chief prosecutor of Rome who had closed the case, now serves as the chief judge of the Vatican’s criminal tribunal, while Diddi holds the position of chief prosecutor. Diddi stated that his office had examined the available evidence and pursued leads worthy of further investigation. He also mentioned that his office had conducted interrogations of individuals holding Vatican positions at the time of Orlandi’s disappearance. Consequently, all relevant documentation was recently transmitted to the prosecutor’s office in Rome for further review and appropriate action.
Diddi expressed solidarity with the Orlandi family, and Pietro Orlandi, Emanuela’s brother, is planning a sit-in protest near the Vatican on Sunday. He has tirelessly fought for 40 years to uncover the truth behind his sister’s disappearance. This latest development offers renewed hope for closure in this long-standing case.
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