- Pope Francis defends St. John Paul against "baseless" allegations
- Roman mobster accused John Paul of abusing a teen girl
- Pope Francis made his remarks while greeting pilgrims at St. Peter's Square
Pope Francis publicly defended St. John Paul II on Sunday, calling recent allegations about the late pontiff "offensive and baseless."
In remarks to pilgrims and visitors in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis said he hoped to convey the sentiments of the faithful across the globe by expressing gratitude for the memory of the Polish pontiff.
Papal Official Rejects 'Vatican Girl' Abduction Claims
The Vatican's media apparatus had previously labeled as "slanderous" an audiotape from a claimed Roman mobster in which he implied that John Paul would go hunting for teenage girls to molest.
Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi, a young daughter of a Vatican official who lived in the Vatican, aired the tape on an Italian TV program. As per NY Post, the 15-year-old's disappearance in 1983 remains a mystery, producing countless ideas and, thus far, futile investigations in the decades afterward.
Pope Francis stated that among the gathering in the Square on Sunday were pilgrims and other faithful who had come to pray at a sanctuary for divine compassion, a trait John Paul frequently emphasized during his pontificate, which lasted from 1978 to 2005.
Pietro Orlandi met for hours last week with Vatican prosecutors who restarted the inquiry into his sister's abduction earlier this year. The Italian Parliament has also established an inquest commission to investigate the affair. On June 22, 1983, Emanuela vanished after leaving her family's Vatican City residence to attend a piano lesson in Rome. Her father worked for the Holy See as a lay employee.
Among the ideas regarding what happened to her are those tying her disappearance to the aftermath of John Paul's failed assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square in 1981 or to the international financial crisis involving the Vatican bank. Other interpretations see the criminal underworld of Rome playing a part.
The recent four-part Netflix documentary 'Vatican Girl' investigated such possibilities and included new evidence from a friend who said Emanuela informed her a week before she vanished that a high-ranking Vatican clergyman had made sexual attempts toward her.
Brother of Missing 'Vatican Girl' Speaks Out
"They say Wojtyla [Karol Józef Wojtya, John Paul II's birth name] used to go out in the evenings with two Polish monsignors. It was certainly not to bless houses," Orlandi remarked on the show, according to Reuters.
The outcry over Orlandi's remarks finally reached Pope Francis, who denounced the idea that John Paul committed any sexual offenses on Sunday. The comments were also slammed by John Paul's lifelong secretary, Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who described them as "unreal, false, and laughable if they weren't tragic and even criminal," according to the Associated Press.
Orlandi defended his remarks, claiming that he did not make the claims. Instead, he told Reuters that he only " reiterated what others had said." I did not witness it."
The suspicion surrounding Emanuela Orlandi's disappearance sprang from reports that the Vatican frequently held sex slaves (young women and nuns) whom clerics exploited. The late Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's former head exorcist, confirmed the long-held notion, claiming in 2012 that her disappearance was "a case of sexual exploitation resulting in murder."
Pietro Orlandi has asked the court to explore every lead, including the 2019 excavation of a re-sealed tomb where he believes his sister may have been buried, based on an anonymous tip. The Vatican stated at the time that Emanuela Orlandi's body was not discovered in the tomb, which was vacant, despite describing its tenant as a German noblewoman.
Related Article : Pope Francis Calls for Unity
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