Pope Francis describes “innuendos” against John Paul II as unfounded

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday dismissed as offensive and baseless suggestions from the brother of a Vatican schoolgirl who disappeared 40 years ago about one of his predecessors, Saint John Paul II.

Emanuela Orlandi, daughter of the Vatican, failed to return home on June 22, 1983 after a music lesson in Rome. She was 15 years old at the time and lived with her family inside the Vatican. Her disappearance is one of the most enduring mysteries in Italy.

The case entered a new chapter on Tuesday when her brother Pietro met Vatican chief prosecutor Alessandro Dede, whom Francis gave free rein to unravel the case.

After talking to Didi for more than eight hours, Pietro Orlandi appeared on a TV show where he played part of an audio recording in the voice of a man Orlandi said was part of an organized criminal group that Italian media had speculated for decades might be. Involved in the disappearance of his sister.

The alleged gangster’s voice says that more than 40 years ago, girls were brought to the Vatican to be molested and that Pope John Paul knew about it.

Orlandi then said in his own words on the show: “They told me that Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II’s nickname) was going out in the evening with two Polish sons, and it certainly wasn’t for the blessing of the houses.”

The comments caused a storm and were condemned by Vatican officials in the past few days before the Pope himself entered the fray in his midday address to some 20,000 people in St. Peter’s Square.

“Certainly interpreting the feelings of the faithful of all parts of the world, I express my gratitude to the memory of St. John Paul, who in these days has been the target of offensive and unfounded insinuations,” said Francis.

The crowd, which is mostly Italian, applauds.

Diddy called out Pietro Orlandi’s attorney, Laura Sgro, on Saturday. The Vatican said it invoked attorney-client privileges. Sgro told Reuters on Sunday that John Paul did not come up in her conversation with Didi, adding in a text message: “I have never questioned the sanctity of John Paul II.”

“It was true that Francis defended John Paul II,” Orlandi told Reuters on Sunday by phone. Orlandi added that during his television appearances, “he would repeat what other people had said. I certainly hadn’t seen it myself.”

The Vatican’s editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, had earlier condemned Orlandi’s remarks as an “insulting” smear of the pope, who led the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014.

Cardinal Stanislav Dziwisz, who had been John Paul’s secretary throughout his leadership, called Orlandi’s actions “vile, unrealistic and laughable if not tragic or even criminal”.

Over the past four decades, cemeteries have been opened, bones have been exhumed from forgotten grave sites, and conspiracy theories have abounded in attempts to determine what happened to Emanuela Orlandi.

The case, which has been the subject of intermittent investigations in Italy and the Vatican, has attracted new global attention following the release of the Netflix series “The Vatican Girl” late last year.

You’ll be fifty-five now.

(This story has been paraphrased to clarify that John Paul II was not Pope Francis’ direct predecessor, in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Philip Pullella). Editing by Philippa Fletcher

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