ROME
Vatican Insider
The Public Prosecutor of Rome: “De Pedis’ tomb will not be opened”
Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City
A three-decade-long wall of silence is crumbling. The investigators will not open the tomb of the boss of Magliana, Renatino De Pedis, at Sant’Appollinare but they are convinced that “the Vatican knows the truth about Emanuela Orlandi.” It sounds like a scene out of Italian TV drama Romanzo criminale (a series about organized crime in Rome in the 80s), but it actually happened. For the first time, magistrates are explicitly pointing the finger at the Holy See. According to the Assistant Public Prosecutor, Giancarlo Capaldo and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Simon Maisto, someone in the Curia is allegedly in possession of “elements of truth that are circumstantial evidence.” The Cardinals (Re, Martinez Somalo, Silvestrini) who, under the pontificate of Karol Wojtyla, occupied key positions at the time of the disappearance of the papal emissary’s daughter, could be heard in court. An unexpected speeding-up of events.
One of the most complicated and celebrated “cold cases” in the world has suddenly turned into a tear in the fabric of half-admissions, false trails or improbable tracks. This flash in the dark has become a nightmare for the family and an international intrigue with claims of ghostly acronyms, interlaced with the attempt on John Paul II’s life and the suspicions regarding the head of the IOR, Paul Marcinkus. According to Pietro Orlandi, the brother of the girl who vanished 29 years ago, this is a pivotal moment. “The declaration by the prosecutors that the truth is known in the Vatican is very heavy, but it’s overshadowed the strange decision not to open De Pedis’ grave,” Peter Orlandi says. “If two years ago, the prosecutor ordered DNA samples of us family members to be collected, it meant that there is a valid reason to inspect Sant’Appollinare; it’s unclear why now that act is no longer useful to the investigation.” Probably “the prosecutors know the names of these Vatican figures, I hope that they listen to them to find out what they know.”
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