Rome: The third new investigation launched in the four decades since Emanuela Orlandi vanished on the streets of Rome is about to be launched by the Italian Parliament, a bicameral commission of inquiry into the disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee.
Tuesday saw the unanimous approval of the Senate's Constitutional Affairs Committee to establish the inquest, and now the full Senate is anticipated to approve it. The lower house of the Italian parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, had already given its approval.
Separately, the case's investigations have just recently been reopened by prosecutors in Rome and the Vatican.
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On June 22, 1983, Orlandi vanished 40 years ago this week after leaving her family's apartment in Vatican City to attend a music lesson in Rome. Her father worked for the Holy See as a layperson. Her disappearance at the age of 15 has been connected to a variety of theories over the years, including the assassination attempt on Pope St. John Paul II, a financial scandal involving the Vatican bank, and Rome's criminal underworld.
On Sunday, the family and their supporters commemorated the anniversary by protesting and marching to St. Peter's Square to demand the disclosure of Orlandi's fate. During his Sunday noon blessing, Pope Francis noted the passing of time and made a rare papal acknowledgment of the family's ongoing suffering.
Francis informed Orlandi's supporters below from his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square that today was the 40th anniversary of her disappearance. "I want to take this opportunity to express my affection for the family, especially the mother, and to assure them of my prayers," he said.
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The Orlandi family's attorney, Laura Sgro, praised the Senate committee's vote on Tuesday as a positive development and urged swift passage by the full Senate.
She said, "The pursuit of truth and justice belongs to all good people, and today the Senate demonstrated that it wants transparency and clarity in the Emanuela case.
Sgro previously praised Francis' choice to discuss the case in public and to show his support for the family. "A taboo has fallen," she declared. We are appreciative of Pope Francis for this gesture because it wasn't expected.
The four-part Netflix documentary "Vatican Girl," which examined the various theories put forth as explanations for Orlandi's disappearance, reignited public interest in the case last year. New testimony from a friend who claimed Orlandi told her a week before she vanished that a powerful Vatican cleric had made advances towards her was featured in the documentary.
After the documentary aired and as the 40th anniversary of her disappearance drew near, Orlandi's family pushed for a parliamentary commission of inquiry with support from some Italian legislators.
Recently, the Vatican prosecutor disclosed that while studying the cold case files, he had discovered new leads "worthy of further investigation." The prosecutor pleaded with the lawmakers to back off and let law enforcement handle their business, but both houses of Parliament continued with their own investigation.
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The parliamentary investigation will focus on other young women who vanished around the same time that Orlandi went missing. Investigations "on matters of public interest" are permitted by the Italian Constitution for legislators and senators.
The investigations are not meant to replace police investigations, but participating members of the Italian Parliament have the same powers and restrictions as members. They have previously used such inquests to delve deeply into unresolved Mafia crimes and terrorist attacks.