Could the Truth about the Orlandi Case Be Hidden in the Boss's Tomb?

By Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican Insider
January 21, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/emanuela-orlandi-11843/

demonstration in the Vatican City Photo by Emanuela Orlandi

Magistrates inspect the crypt of St. Apollinaris, where De Pedis, the leader of Banda della Magliana, is buried. According to Pietro Orlandi "that shameful burial is the true knot of the interlacing of State, Church and Crime"

The door that keads onto the piazza is closed off. From the courtyard of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, students come in dribs and drabs for Eucharistic adoration, and the rector of the basilica, Fr. Pedro Huidobro, has just put on his vestments. It is the first time in 29 years that Pietro Orlandi has set foot in the church that may hold the secret of the disappearance of his 14-year old sister. Buried inside the crypt is Banda Magliana boss Renatino De Pedis, and the Public Prosecutor of Rome has given the Vicariate "clearance" to inspect the tomb. It had already taken DNA from Pietro and the other family members of the girl from the Vatican City who vanished in front of the church assigned to Opus Dei, just a few steps from Piazza Navona and the Senate.

"The burial of the boss De Pedis in a place intended for popes and cardinals is, I think, the true knot of the interlacing between Church, State, and the criminals that took away my sister Emanuela 28 years ago," says Pietro. The Acting Public Prosecutor of Rome, Giancarlo Capaldo, has met twice with the rector of St. Apollinaris, who has been very cooperative about opening the tomb which an anonymous tip said contains traces of Emanuela. "I am with you and your family, for you the doors of this church will always be open," assured Father Huidobro, who is also a coroner, to Pietro Orlandi, who this afternoon will lead a demonstration in front of the basilica. "Like you, I also want the grave opened and want to shed light on this matter," the rector added, expressing "respect and closeness for people who have suffered so much."

St. Apollinaris is not just any church. It was the church of the Pontifical Institute of Legal Studies, with four centuries of glorious history. One of the leading centers of education for the clergy of the eternal city, it boasts among its alumni three popes (Pacelli, Roncalli, Montini), the modernist Bonaiuti, and a ranking priest and scholar like De Luca. Then, during the battles of the referendum on divorce in 1974, it hosted conferences held by Adriana Zarri and Raniero La Valle, and was closed as a "den of Communists" by Secretary of State Benelli. Rector Carmelo Nigro was transferred to a parish and stripped of his position as Chair of Theology at the Lateran University. The neighboring Pontifical Institute for Arabic Studies also had to move to Trastevere. Previously located there was the Circle of St. Pietro, dedicated to assisting the poor, and then a pragmatic and skillful rector with contacts across the board, a friend of big shots of the Roman Curia - Fr. Piero Vergari, who in his prison ministry had been in contact with prominent members of the Roman underworld. Illustrious teachers such as Latinist Giovanni D'Anna taught in the adjoining school, and an office was reserved for Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Among Don Vergari's benefactors was De Pedis, who, when he ended up the victim of score-settling, obtained from the Vicariate a place among the cardinals and princes in the crypt of the basilica.

Today, Fr. Vergari is back in Sigillo, in his native Umbria. An anonymous phone call to the TV show "Chi l'ha visto" ("Who has seen it?") put investigators on the trail of St. Apollinaris: "If you want to know more about Emanuela Orlandi, look at De Pedis' grave." The case has been surrounded by unconfirmed rumors of pedophilia and a code of silence, which the Orlandi family has never stopped fighting against. "At St. Apollinaris they gave a shameful burial to the boss of Banda della Magliana: the real knot of the interlacing between the Italian state, the Vatican and crime is in that tomb. Why are they waiting to open it?" asks Pietro Orlandi, who has met with papal secretary Fr. Georg Gaenswein.

A petition with 60,000 signatures (including Dario Fo, Franca Rame, Dacia Maraini, and Mark Lodoli) has been delivered to Benedict XVI, and twenty MPs have called for clarification on one of the mysteries of the Republic. "We want to know what happened to Emanuela, and we will never surrender to resignation," insists Pietro Orlandi to Rector Huidobro. A final embrace, and a promise: "Truth is a duty."