Here are the facts. All of them verifiable.
On June 22nd 1983, in Rome, a teenage schoolgirl disappeared without trace. She was 15 years old. Her name was Emanuela Orlandi. Her father was a lay employee in the Vatican.
Over the past 40 years, Italian authorities have conducted several inquiries. The last one closed in 2015. It took nine years and resulted in no definitive conclusions or convictions.
Still, Emanuela’s story continues to be the focus of countless news articles, blogs, books, and a recent documentary series. Considered Italy’s most famous cold case, on January 9th this year, the Vatican announced it was reopening investigations and would, quote, “leave no stone unturned”.
Here are the theories. All of them unsubstantiated.
Emanuela Orlandi was abducted by the KGB in an attempt to blackmail the Vatican and secure the release of Pope John Paul II’s would-be assassin. Emanuela was kidnapped by the Italian mafia in order to extort money allegedly owed them by the Vatican Bank. She was sequestered by Vatican agents and held overseas to cover up vague claims of her being sexually abused.
Pietro Orlandi, Emanuela’s brother, has spent his life searching for answers. But in a recent interview he appeared to turn those claims into accusations when he seemed to insinuate that Pope Saint John Paul II himself might have been involved.
That’s why Pope Francis felt obliged to defend his predecessor…
POPE FRANCIS
I am certain of interpreting the sentiments of the faithful throughout the world. I direct a grateful thought to the memory of Saint John Paul II, the object of offensive and unfounded inferences these past few days.
It was the first time Pope Francis had spoken out in public regarding the Orlandi case. But it wasn’t the first time he had demonstrated his interest in seeing it resolved. In 2019, he agreed to the opening of two tombs inside Vatican City which were thought to contain Emanuela’s remains. They were empty. In 2012 and in 2018, two other tombs in Rome were opened and examined for the same reason. Neither revealed anything that could link them to Emanuela.
So much for the theories and the facts. But there are also the fantasies. Some of them promote a darkly Hollywood-like version of the Vatican as a cloak-and-dagger place where popes are poisoned and cardinals kidnap teenage girls.
The reality is that, according to the Italian Government Commission for Missing Persons, 67 people went missing on average every day in Italy, last year alone.
The reality is that, if there were no Vatican connection, who knows if the story of Emanuela’s tragic disappearance 40 years ago would still attract the same attention it does?
SPL
