The girl from the Vatican
The Netflix series tells the mysterious case still unresolved, which occurred 40 years ago, which the Vatican has just reopened.
"The Manuela Orlandi case is not the simple story of the disappearance of a young woman, it is much more." Thus begins The Girl from the Vatican, the docuseries of four hours and a half episodes that reveal the ins and outs of one of the biggest scandals in which the Vatican has been involved: the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl from the small state. within the city of Rome. A case still unresolved after 40 years and that has just been reopened by the authorities of the Holy See.
One afternoon in June 1983, after leaving her music class, Emanuela Orlandi disappears without a trace. Almost four decades later, her brother Pietro, who along with his other three sisters was born and raised in Vatican City, tells the story of what happened (or believes it could have happened) in this British Netflix production.
The statements of the girl's relatives are joined by those of journalists, police officers, and investigators of the time who offer the information that was handled on the case, including clues, recordings, phone calls, and even the words of comfort from the then Pope. , John Paul II. The different conspiracy theories that keep the viewer wondering what happened are also shown as if it were a suspense movie.
The case, as it was the daughter of a Vatican employee, an official of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, immediately had a great impact on the small state: "Living there was like living in a small town. The only difference with the rest of neighborhoods in Rome was that it was surrounded by walls and, at night, at 12, the gate was closed", says one of the Orlandi sisters. The worldwide media repercussion was also enormous because the investigations came to involve the Holy See, a Masonic lodge, the Roman Mafia, and even international terrorist groups, such as the Turkish organization Gray Wolves.
"I think the Vatican knows what happened to Emanuela. It was all a power struggle, a scandal in which the Holy See has a lot to say," according to one of the statements by a Roman investigator.
From the beginning it was assumed that the girl had been kidnapped; why is still a mystery. The lines of investigation were on the trail of a convent in Luxembourg, where it seemed that Emanuela had been taken, but they went nowhere. On the other hand, some words from the then Pope, John Paul II, in a homily that implied that the girl was alive (what information did she have?) and her subsequent visit to her relatives caused suspicion, and many thought that there was a connection between the kidnapping and the Holy See.
The terrorist Ali Aca and the mafia
The suspicions continued when a couple of weeks after the disappearance, an anonymous caller, who played recordings of Emanuela crying, demanded that the Pope intervene to secure the release of Ali Agca, the Turkish citizen who tried to assassinate John Paul II in 1981. in exchange for the ransom of the young woman. Aca himself refused to exchange and did not give credibility to those calls.
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From the trail of terrorism, the documentary jumps to another linked to the mafia in Rome and the possibility, after statements in an interview on public television by Sabrina Minardi, lover of the leader of the mafia organization Banda della Magliana Enrico de Pedis, alias Renatino, that they had kidnapped Emanuela to give the Vatican a wake-up call. According to what is told in the series, a lot of money from the mafia ended up in the hands of the Holy See, which was then diverted for solidarity issues. The mafia wanted billions of lire back.
In the last chapter of the series, a journalist discovers, after the Vatileaks scandal, new evidence that suggests that the Vatican could have hidden information about Emanuela's fate. The great mystery that remains unresolved in this careful production could finally be clarified, since this week, the Vatican authorities have reopened the case after several requests from Emanuela's older brother, Pietro, who has been campaigning for 40 years to solve the disappearance of he.
