Rome, Italy, Jun 25, 2008 / 08:57 am
The Vatican has said it regrets the speculation in the Italian media that the deceased Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was involved in the disappearance of a Vatican employee’s daughter in 1983.
On Tuesday afternoon, Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Holy See Press Office Director, spoke about how the case of 15 year-old Emanuela Orlandi’s has been handled by the media.
According to Lombardi, the recent disclosure of confidential testimony to the media “has come about in a striking way, with the widespread journalistic disclosure of confidential information, information that remains completely unverified and that proceeds from a witness of extremely dubious credibility.”
Recent reports on several Italian news agencies cited testimony from Sabrina Minardi, who was the girlfriend of Enrico De Pedis, a leader of the infamous Rome-based Magliana gang in the 1980s. In the confidential testimony, Minardi claimed that a renowned gangster kidnapped Emanuela acting on orders from Archbishop Marcinkus, who was head of the Vatican Bank (the Institute for Religious Works) at the time.