Orlandi family rejects the invitation of the Vatican to participate in the jubilee of consolation

Pietro Orlandi, brother of the missing Emanuela Orlandi, asked the Vatican to dedicate a holy day of the missing persons and their families.

The petition was presented last January through its lawyer, Laura Sgraó, in a letter sent to the substitute for the State Secretariat, Mons. Edgar Peña Parra.

In the letter, signed by Sgraó, Pope Francis was asked for a concrete gesture: reserve one day of the Holy Year to these people, which defined as a sign of spiritual comfort that “could relieve the torment of relatives who expect answers, justice and truth.”

The response of the Holy See arrived on March 25. Mons. Rino Fisichella, proprephic of the Dicastery for the evangelization and responsible for the organization of jubilee events, confirmed that the Orlandi family was invited to participate in the jubilee of the consolation, which will be held on September 15 in Rome.

This jubilee, one of the events of the Holy Year, is aimed at those who are going through situations of pain and affliction. According to the Official websitethe call especially invites those people who suffer “because of diseases, mourning, violence and abuse, along with their family and friends.”

Speaking to ACI Press, Pietro Orlandi said that Vatican’s response “was not what we had asked.” He stressed that “the jubilee of the consolation is not the same: the consolation can only have it, we and all the families of missing, when we have truth and justice.”

His lawyer Laura Sgraó explained to ACI Press on September 2 that, after the March answer, there have been no more contacts with the Vatican and that the family probably does not participate in the event. “We had asked, not only for the Orlandi, but for all the families of missing, one day dedicated to them,” he lamented.

What happened to Manuela Orlandi

The case of Emanuela Orlandi remains one of the great unresolved enigmas of the Vatican. The young woman, daughter of an employee of the Holy See, disappeared in 1983 at age 15.

Its history, linked in several theories to the mafia, has gone around the world and even has a Netflix documentary called “Vatican Girl.” After being closed in 2020, the case was reopened in January 2023 following the insistent requests of Pietro Orlandi, which for almost four decades claims justice and truth for his sister.