Vatican City, Apr 16, 2023 / 06:10 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Sunday defended St. John Paul II against a recent accusation that the Polish pope secretly visited women at night.
Speaking to the public on Divine Mercy Sunday, a day established by Pope John Paul II in 2000, Pope Francis called the insinuation “unfounded and offensive.”
“Certain that I interpret the feelings of the faithful throughout the world, I address a grateful thought to the memory of St. John Paul II, at this time the object of unfounded and offensive conjectures,” he said.
Pope Francis greeted groups that promote the spirituality of Divine Mercy after leading the Regina Caeli, a Marian antiphon prayed during the Easter Season, from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square on April 16.
Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old girl and Vatican citizen who went missing 40 years ago, insinuated this week that John Paul II secretly left the Vatican at night to engage in immoral behavior.
Orlandi made the statement April 11 on the Italian television program Di Martedi, on which he appeared with his family’s lawyer, Laura Sgrò. Neither would disclose the source of the rumor.
Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, who was John Paul II’s personal secretary for over three decades, said this week the rumors were “vile insinuations” and “false from beginning to end.”
Orlandi, who has been trying to get answers to his sister’s disappearance for 40 years, met with the Vatican’s chief prosecutor for eight hours on April 11.
Alessandro Diddi, prosecutor for the Vatican City State, said that Pope Francis had granted him “maximum freedom of action to investigate [Orlandi’s case] on a broad scale without conditions of any kind.”
“Pope Francis tenaciously pursues the desire for absolute transparency, the search for truth and purification,” Diddi said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
Emanuela Orlandi was the 15-year-old daughter of Ercole Orlandi, an envoy of the Prefecture of the Pontifical House and a citizen of Vatican City State. Her disappearance on June 22, 1983, after leaving for a music lesson in Rome, has been one of Italy’s biggest unsolved cases and the subject of speculation for decades.
The case was also the subject of a Netflix true-crime docuseries, “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi,” which came out last year. The final episode of the series puts forward a theory that the Vatican was somehow involved in the disappearance.
The Vatican has always denied having any role in the girl’s vanishing and has cooperated with other investigations into the disappearance in recent years.
In January, the Vatican’s prosecutor opened a file to further investigate Emanuela Orlandi’s disappearance at the request of her family.
According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, Diddi’s April 11 meeting with Pietro Orlandi and lawyer Laura Sgrò, which was requested by Orlandi, served as an occasion for Orlandi to “make his own statements and to offer any information in his possession to the file opened by the Vatican promoter of justice in January.”
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“The final episode of the series puts forward a theory that the Vatican was somehow involved in the disappearance.” I’m SHOCKED
“Neither would disclose the source of the rumor.” ANOTHER SHOCKER!!!
One reels!!!
The broken clock is right twice a day.
Such a salacious comment no doubt would make an interesting foundation for yet another Catholic bashing novel of FICTION. But it rates ZERO on the truth meter. No doubt the brother of the missing girl speaks out of anger and a wish to find an answer, and place blame. His emotional state however does not give him the freedom to accuse others out of pure fantasy.Especially not a person who has served as Pope and is a declared saint. If this man had any PROOF at all, it would have long ago been in the hands of the police. Sadly however in today’s day and age, all that is needed to destroy a person is an unfounded accusation. This is especially true in the case of sexual accusations. It hardly matters if the person is later found innocent. The damage to their reputation is significant and cannot be fixed. I think the laws in all countries should be changed to strengthen slander law protections for the accused, with large fines and even prison time for those making unproveble accusations. This is outright disgusting.
I totally agree. A law like this would probably help those planning to make a false accusation think twice, considering that, at the end of the process, they may be the ones to face justice.
It worked with Cardinal Pell. They even put him in jail. Why not try it here? These 20-30-40 years old accusations are motivated by $$$ obtained by a variety of means. Especially effective when the accused is dead and cannot defend themself. And yes, so long as people can hurl around accusations without incurring any penalties, why not?