Pope Francis publicly defends the late pontiff, Saint John Paul II

Pope Francis made a public defense of the late pontiff, Saint John Paul II, and condemned recent insinuations as ‘offensive and baseless.’

The insinuations were made by the brother of a Vatican schoolgirl who went missing 40 years ago. The pope’s remarks were made in St. Peter’s Square in front of approximately 20,000 tourists and pilgrims on April 16th. The insinuations in question were related to an audiotape from a purported Roman mobster that was called ‘slanderous’ by Vatican media.

The tape insinuated that John Paul II would go out looking for underage girls to molest. The tape was played on an Italian TV program by Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi, a schoolgirl who went missing and was the daughter of a Vatican usher.

The alleged mobster stated that over 40 years ago, girls were brought into the Vatican to be molested, and Pope John Paul knew about it. In 1983, Emanuela, who was 15 at the time, disappeared after a music lesson in Rome. Despite years of investigation, her disappearance remains one of Italy’s most enduring mysteries and has given rise to several theories over the years.

The recent Netflix documentary ‘Vatican Girl’ provided new testimony, showing a friend who said that Emanuela had told her a week before her disappearance that a high-ranking Vatican cleric had made sexual advances towards her.

The audio clip caused a stir in the Vatican, and many people condemned and criticized the insinuation about the late pontiff. On Sunday, Pope Francis defended John Paul II, whose papacy spanned from 1978 to 2005.

He expressed a grateful thought to the memory of St. John Paul and said, ‘Certain that I am interpreting the sentiments of the faithful from all over the world, I express a grateful thought to the memory of St John Paul, who in these days has been the object of offensive and unfounded insinuations.’

In a telephone interview with Reuters, Orlandi said that it was ‘correct that Francis defended John Paul II,’ adding that during the TV appearance, he was just ‘repeating what others had said. I certainly did not see it myself.’

However, John Paul’s secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, called Orlandi’s actions ‘ignoble, unrealistic, laughable if they were not tragic, even criminal.’ Pietro’s lawyer, Laura Sgro, also insisted that her client wasn’t accusing anyone.