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.
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