Emanuela Orlandi, the Vatican reopens the case

From the Banca della Magliana ad Ali Agca, from her friend’s testimony on harassment to the possible connection with the disappearance of Mirella Gregori. The case of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of an employee of the Holy See who disappeared on June 22, 1938, has seen dozens of leads open up over the years and never arrive at the truth, at the solution of the mystery, a solution that for many, starting from the girl’s family, lies in Vatican. Now a new window is opening right from inside the Vatican walls.

Almost forty years after his disappearance, the promoter of Vatican justice Alessandro Diddi has decided to reopen the investigation together with the Gendarmerie. According to rumors leaked through the agency AdnKronos files, documents, reports, information and testimonies related to the case should be scanned and checked again.

Just a few days ago the position of was made public Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, secretary of Pope Benedict XVI: «I have never compiled anything on the Orlandi case so this phantom dossier has never been made known solely because it does not exist». Emanuela’s family, on the other hand, is convinced of the opposite, that in the Vatican there are documents not known to the Italian judiciary on the case. The Orlandi, through the lawyer Laura Sgrohave repeatedly asked about the yellow folder with Emanuela Orlandi Report written on it which had been seen by Paolo Gabriele, the so-called Crow, former butler of the Pope.

The hope is that among the documents that will be reconsidered there are truly unpublished ones. We should start again from the data acquired in the process, following old and new tracks. The transparency desired by Pope francesco seems to be the engine of this breakthrough. In recent months, interest has rekindled interest in the case, thanks to the series Vatican Girl and to the many published surveys. In the past, the Vatican had accepted requests from family members such as verifying the presence of the girl’s remains in two tombs in the Teutonic cemetery within the Vatican walls. However, nothing was found at the time of opening in 2019.

The 15-year-old Emanuela disappeared on the afternoon of June 22, 1983 after leaving the house to go to music lessons in Piazza Sant’Apollinare. One of the leaders of the Magliana gang was buried right in the basilica of Sant’Apollinare, Renatino De Pedis, indicated as the material executor of the kidnapping at the request of high prelates. For the judiciary, the investigation into the disappearances of Emanuela Orlandi and Mirella Gregori, launched in 2006 after the declarations of Sabrina Minardi, De Pedis’ lover, was closed in October 2015.

– Andrea Purgatori: «Emanuela Orlandi? Plausible harassment with the most probable lead, that of money”

– Emanuela Orlandi, Ali Agca writes to his brother: «It was taken over by the nuns»