Pope Francis voiced his support Sunday for the late Pope John Paul II, issuing the latest Vatican denial of inappropriate behavior by the former pontiff.
An audio tape, allegedly linked to a Roman gangster, suggests John Paul II was aware of girls being brought to the Vatican to be molested more than four decades ago, according to Reuters. Pietro Orlandi — whose sister, Emanuela Orlandi, disappeared in 1983 in an unsolved mystery — recently played part of the tape on an Italian TV network.
“They tell me [Pope John Paul II] used to go out in the evenings with two Polish monsignors and it certainly was not to bless houses,” Pietro said on the network.
The Vatican ripped the suggestion as “slanderous” last week. On Sunday, Pope Francis offered his own rejection.
“Confident of interpreting the sentiment of all the faithful of the entire world, I direct a grateful thought to the memory of St. John Paul II, in these days the object of offensive and baseless insinuations,” Francis said in St. Peter’s Square.
Emanuela was the 15-year-old daughter of a Holy See employee and was living at the Vatican when she went missing nearly 40 years ago. Her disappearance has been the subject of multiple conspiracy theories and is covered in a four-part documentary series, “Vatican Girl,” released on Netflix last year.
Vatican prosecutors reopened their probe into Emanuela’s disappearance in January.
Pietro Orlandi met with prosecutors for eight hours last week and has shared the audio tape with them. A lawyer for Pietro contends his comments were not meant to be an accusation against anyone.
John Paul II served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. Last month, the Polish news channel TVN24 aired a report claiming John Paul II attempted to cover up several of his priests’ alleged abuse of children while he was an archbishop.
Sunday’s comments by Pope Francis came two weeks after he was released from a Roman hospital following a three-day stay for a respiratory infection. He participated this month in numerous Holy Week commitments, including leading Mass on Easter Sunday.