Pope Francis on Sunday dismissed as offensive and unfounded the “insinuations” of the brother of Emanuele Orlandi, who disappeared 40 years ago in the Vatican, that Saint John Paul II knew that “girls were brought to the Vatican to be molested”, according to Reuters.

Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican porter, was unable 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 in the Vatican.

Her disappearance is one of Italy’s most enduring mysteries.

The case entered a new chapter on Tuesday, when her brother Pietro met with the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Alessandro Didi, to whom Francis gave full authority to investigate the case.

After speaking with Diddi for more than eight hours, Pietro Orlandi appeared on a television program in which he presented part of an audio recording of the voice of a man who Orlandi said was part of an organized crime group that the Italian press had speculated. decades that may have been involved in his sister’s disappearance.

The brother of the missing girl says that Pope John Paul went out in the evening and “it was definitely not to sanctify houses”

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

Then Orlandi said, in his own words, during the show: “They say that Wojtyła (the name of Pope John Paul II) went out in the evening with two Polish monsignors, and it was certainly not to consecrate houses.”

The comments sparked a storm and were condemned by Vatican officials in recent days, before the pope himself delivered his lunchtime sermon to an estimated 20,000 people in St. Peter’s Square.

“Of course, I interpret the feelings of the faithful from all over the world, I express a grateful opinion to the memory of Saint John Paul, who these days was the object of offensive and groundless insinuations,” Francis said.

The mostly Italian crowd burst into applause.

On Saturday, Diddy called Pietro Orlandi’s lawyer Laura Sgro. The Vatican said it invoked attorney-client privilege.

Sgro told Reuters on Sunday that John Paul was not mentioned in her conversation with Diddy, adding in a text message:

“I have never questioned the sanctity of John Paul II.”

Orlandi told Reuters by phone on Sunday that it was “right that Francis defended John Paul II.”

Orlandi added that during the televised appearance, “he repeated what others said. Of course, I didn’t see it myself.”

Vatican editorial director Andrea Tornielli previously condemned Orlandi’s comments as an “inappropriate” slander against the pontiff, who led the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 and was canonized in 2014.

Cardinal Stanislav Dziwisz, who was John Paul’s secretary throughout his pontificate, called Orlandi’s actions “ignoble, unrealistic, ridiculous, if they were not tragic, even criminal.”

Over the past four decades, graves have been opened, bones exhumed from forgotten graves, and conspiracy theories abound in attempts to determine exactly what happened to Emanuela Orlandi.

The case, which has been the subject of periodic investigations in Italy and the Vatican, has attracted renewed attention around the world since the release of the Netflix series “Vatican Girl” late last year. Emanuele Orlandi would have been 55 years ago. (News.ro)