Orlandi case: Vatican daily slams John Paul II 'slurs'

(ANSA) - VATICAN CITY, APR 14 - Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano on Friday blasted comments made this week about Saint John Paul II by the brother of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican City resident who disappeared in 1983, saying they were "absurd and shameful".
    Emanuela Orlandi's brother Pietro met Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi to talk about his sister's case on Tuesday.
    In an editorial, L'Osservatore Romano attacked comments Pietro Orlandi made on La7 television this week in which he talked of John Paul II going out at night with senior clergymen looking for girls.
    "Evidence? None. Clues? Even less. Third- or second-hand testimony? Not even a shadow. Just anonymous, shameful accusations," read the editorial on the "supposed revelations about Pope Wojtyla and the Orlandi case".
    "It's madness. And we don't say so because Karol Wojtyła is a saint or because he was pope.
    "Although this media massacre causes sadness and shock, injuring the hearts of millions of believers and non-believers, defamation must be denounced because it is unworthy of a civilized country for anyone to be treated in this way, dead or alive, whether they be a cleric or a layperson, a pope, a metal worker or a young unemployed person".
    The editorial said it was right to investigate Emanuela Orlandi's disappearance but this did not justify slander.
    Earlier on Friday Pietro Orlandi's lawyer Laura Sgrò said her client had not intended to "formulate accusations against anyone.
    "He reiterated that to the prosecutor, and he wrote it in the deposition he presented during his testimony," said Sgrò.
    "He only asked that the quest for the truth should not be conditioned in any way. "He is sorry that some people have misinterpreted his statements by manipulating some things extrapolated from them".
    Emanuela Orlandi disappeared while returning home from a flute lesson in Rome on 22 June 1983. (ANSA).