Startling new theory emerges in one of Italy’s greatest unsolved mysteries
The childhood friend says that in the days before Emanuela Orlandi disappeared she said that she was molested by 'someone close to the Pope'
A teenage girl whose disappearance from the streets of Rome ranks as one of Italy’s greatest unsolved mysteries was sexually assaulted by a senior Holy See figure, it has been claimed, in a chilling new twist to the long-running mystery.
The daughter of a Vatican office clerk whose family lived inside the tiny city state, Emanuela Orlandi was 15 when she vanished as she returned from a flute lesson in the capital in 1983. She has not been seen since.
Theories about the reasons for her disappearance have revolved around murky claims of Cold War skulduggery, sex trafficking, banking scandals, mafia vendettas and negotiations over the release of a Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II.
Now a Netflix series called Vatican Girl, which will be released on Oct 20, has come up with a startling new theory about what happened to the schoolgirl.
A woman who was a childhood friend says that in the days before the teenager disappeared, she was sexually molested within the walls of the Vatican by “someone close to the Pope”, who at the time was John Paul II.
Knowing that she harboured this explosive secret, a criminal organisation called the Magliana Gang kidnapped her as a means of putting pressure on the Vatican to pay back money they had borrowed to covertly fund Solidarity, the trade union that was fighting communism in the Pope’s native Poland, it is claimed.
The Vatican’s Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, had been accused of sending money to Solidarity.
The woman, whose face is obscured in the documentary, said that Emanuela told her she had “a secret to confess” in a conversation they had about a week before her disappearance.
Emanuela said that as she was strolling through the grounds of the Vatican, where she lived with her family in a grace and favour apartment, she had been “bothered” by a “person very close to the Pope”.
Asked whether the harassment was sexual, the friend told Netflix: “Absolutely, yes.”
Emanuela was “scared, even ashamed”, the friend, now middle-aged, said.
She broke down in tears as she said she had never divulged the information before. Asked if she was afraid of the consequences, she replied: “I have always been afraid. It’s a terrible world.”
Mark Lewis, the Emmy award-winning director of the Netflix series, told The Telegraph.“I think she didn’t feel comfortable coming forward before because she feels the weight of the Church and of her own Catholic faith.
'Paedophilia was taboo subject'
“The idea that there was paedophilia in the Church was such a taboo subject for so long. And this is even worse – it’s not just paedophilia inside the Catholic Church, it’s on Vatican soil. I think it was a very frightening place for her to go.”
The Magliana Gang may have used this “sexual secret” as “the ultimate leverage of blackmail” against the Vatican, said Andrea Purgatori, an Italian journalist who has followed the case since the beginning.
Emanuela may have been “a sacrificial lamb” – the Vatican did nothing to save her because it did not want her secret to be revealed, he said.
Emiliano Fittipaldi, an investigative journalist and another expert on the case, said: “If it was a question of money, it would have been better to kidnap a cardinal or a prominent prelate. Why kidnap this girl and not a cardinal?
“The only explanation for me is that she had a great secret that could have created an enormous scandal [for the Vatican].”
The family of Ms Orlandi, as well as many Vatican observers, claim that the Holy See knows exactly what happened to the teenager, how she died and where she is buried.
They allege the Holy See has been engaged in a cover-up for decades, cloaking the affair in silence and obstructing attempts to find out what happened.
“I am absolutely certain that the Vatican knows what happened to Emanuela,” said Laura Sgrò, the family’s lawyer.
"It is time for the Vatican to come clean on exactly what happened and give her family closure. There’s no time to lose,” she said, pointing out that key figures in the affair have already died and others are elderly.
'We will never stop looking'
Ms Orlandi’s brother Pietro, who has fought tirelessly for 38 years to find out what happened to his sister, said: “It’s the moment to tell the truth. It’s been far too long.
“We will never stop looking for her.”
His 92-year-old mother should at least be allowed to lay flowers on her daughter’s grave, wherever that might be, he said.
The Vatican declined to grant any interviews for the four-part Netflix documentary, nor did it respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment.
There was hope that the reforming Pope Francis might shed light on the mystery when he was elected in 2013.
But the only remark he has made to the family is that “Emanuela is in heaven” , without divulging how, where or why she died.
“It chilled my blood to hear the Pope say Emanuela was dead,” said Pietro Orlandi. “We don't know if she is alive or dead because there is no evidence. But for a head of state to say that Emanuela was dead meant he knew more than we did.”
