Pope Francis and the Orlandi case: from the phrase said to his brother (« Emanuela is in heaven ») to the opening of a Vatican investigation

He made himself heard, and how, Pope Franciseven on the more complex and elusive intrigue that has been shaking the sacred rooms for almost 42 years. 5 days had passed since its election, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio, April 18, 2013at the exit from the parish of Sant’Anna, he pronounced the name of the girl who passed away on June 22, 1983when you meet family members. « He squeezed his hand and said » If Emanuela stands in heaven, we pray for her « , » Pietro Orlandi, his brother, hotly said. A reported phrase, which inspired the title of a film (« The truth lies in heaven », by Roberto Faenza, 2016) and fueled controversy e conjecturesabove all because Pietro himself, in subsequent statements, he admitted that he had « added » the hypothetical conjunction « for a form of respect for his holiness », when the tone would be more net and assertive (« Emanuela is in heaven »). The controversial deIn short, it could indicate that the Pope somehow knew of the death of the 15 -year -old daughter of the papal messengernever tried with the finding of the Corp0, or the phrase had to be read as mere common sense considerationin light of the time spent?

The investigations of the prosecutor Diddi

In the last 12 years, that Battuta di Bergoglio – which in vain was attempted to decode also through the labiale filmed by a camera – has remained taboo. Dad Francesco, often pressing by the brother of the disappearance with interviews or posts on social media, He never intervened to provide his versionperhaps in order not to end up overwhelmed by the media chopper which on the Orlandi case is always active at full laps. The Pope Argentine, however, has demonstrated that he wants « truth and transparency » on the yellow of the « girl with the band » in a very concrete way, with the most official of the documents: the opening of a judicial investigation in the Vatican on the Orlandi case, absolute novelty, even epochalsince from that distant 1983 the only investigations carried out had been of the Italian judiciary. The green light to the current investigations of the Holy See, entrusted to the promoter of justice Alessandro Diddi, arrived on January 9, 2023. Disruptive move, which raised more than an eyebrow in Curia environments, and which has been from many interpreted as the most sound of denials Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the purple involved (and condemned) for the financial scandal of the London building and now claiming a place as a voter in the conclave.

Becciu’s declaration

It was in fact the then Substitute for General Affairs Becciunot long before, in 2017, speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of a book, to enter the feet together on the disappearance of Emanuela, with one declaration with a tomb flavor: «For us the Orlandi case is closed. We have already given all the clarifications that had been asked. We can only solidarize with the family, but The case is really closed»He repeated the cardinal twice twice, shaking his head.

The-effect effect

Closed? Not even a little, Pope Francis decreed two years ago, with one decision that triggered an effect-effectgiven that at the opening of the investigation into the Vatican, two others followed, one further of the Rome prosecutor’s office (entrusted to the prosecutor Luciani) and that of the Italian Parliament, which in 2024 established the Bicameral Investigation Commission still installed at Palazzo San Macuto. « I want to express my closeness to Emanuela Orlandi’s family membersespecially to the mother, « Bergoglio exclaimed at the Angelus of the third week of June 2023, on the occasion of Forty years of disappearance. Now the investigations of the Diddi prosecutor are underway. The conjectures On the presence or absence of internal dossiers the Web discussions of the thousands of « Orlandologists » who have been debating for decades and are divided around the role played in seizure of Emanuela (and of the Coethane Mirella Gregori) by tonache, secret services (here the Spy Story in 10 points), dealers, underworld.

Direction of travel

The end is not known, of course. With Bergoglio, after Wojtyla and Ratzinger, the third pontiff led he has not managed to dissolve The most murky of the mysteries. The affair Orlandi-Gregori, Unfortunately frequently frequently fed by a news (the failure to return to a minor), he ended up intercepting Tensions, scandals and opacity of a delicate historical period (the final phase of the cold war). The road to the truth is long, as the slowed job of the parliamentary commissionwhich has not even introduced the oath obligation for the witnesses (faculty that would have). There is no shortage of resistance. The sidetracks (or convenient variants) seem to prevail. But it is also true that this time, as never happened in the past, the direction of travel it was clearly indicated, thanks to the formal opening of an investigation Which now will be up to Francesco’s successor to send. (fperonaci@rcs.it).

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