Pope ‘breaks taboo’ with prayer for Emanuela Orlandi, missing Vatican teen
- The 15-year-old, the daughter of a Vatican employee, went missing in June 1983, with suggestions mobsters, secret services or Vatican conspiracy were to blame
- When Pope Francis offered prayers for the girl, her brother said ‘taboo has finally been broken’, while teen Mirella Gregori, who disappeared in 1983 too, is also still missing
Pope Francis offered prayers Sunday for the family of a teenager who went missing 40 years ago this week, an intervention her brother hailed as a sign the Vatican was finally engaging seriously with its most famous cold case.
Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee, was last seen leaving a music class in Rome on June 22, 1983.
Decades of speculation followed over what happened to her, with suggestions that mobsters, the secret services or a Vatican conspiracy were to blame, theories which sparked a hit Netflix series.
After his weekly Angelus prayer at the Vatican, Pope Francis said he wanted to use the anniversary “to once again express my closeness to the family, above all her mother, and assure them of my prayers”.
“I extend my remembrance to all the families who bear the pain of a loved one who has disappeared,” he added.
Orlandi’s family have for years campaigned for the truth and in January the Vatican’s chief prosecutor opened a file into the case.
On Thursday’s anniversary, the Vatican revealed he had forwarded his findings to the Rome prosecutor’s office, which is conducting its own probe.