my name is pietro orlandi

five years ago i walked the same path

through the vatican saint peter's square

surrounded by two hundred thousand

joyful worshipers

it was march 18th 2013.

the day of pope francis's inauguration

devoted followers from around the world

celebrated their faith

and the man who would guide us towards a

bright future

i should have been there with my sister

emmanuella

instead

i was alone

looking to our new pope for answers

seeing me the head of security whispered

a message

then pope francis assured me

your sister is in heaven

i was touched

and stunned

how did the pope know my sister was dead

[Music]

i have been trying to unravel the

mystery of my sister's fate for the past

35 years

[Music]

to do so

i need to start at the beginning

emanuela and i

along with our three sisters were born

and raised in vatican city

the world's smallest state

and home to only 444 citizens

it was like living in a village with the

pope as our beloved protector

inside its walls

my sisters and i

felt safe

[Music]

father worked at the vatican prefecture

where he oversaw all private audiences

with pope paul vi

pope john paul the first and pope john

paul ii

throughout his tenure he was loyal and

devoted

we were honored to meet with john paul

ii many times

as he felt a responsibility to commune

with the families in residence

emmanuella was happy here

posing with the pope even though she was

embarrassed by her large classes

despite our eight-year age difference

we were always close

and i watched with pride as she pursued

her passion for music

but our peaceful world inside the

vatican walls

would soon be shattered

[Music]

on may 13th

1981

pope john paul ii was passing through an

adoring crowd of supporters when the

piercing crack of gunshots rang out

the pope was struck four times and would

fight for his life

as doctors worked to save him

we were left to grapple with agonizing

new questions

how could something like this happen to

the pope

[Music]

who could want him dead

[Music]

the answers would become inextricably

linked to the tragedy that struck my

family two years later

june 22nd 1983 was a very hot

emanuela then 15 wanted me to take her

to the music school

but my girlfriend had already asked me

to drive her to the university

and complain that he usually favored my

little sister

i decided that this time

i would leave emanuela go to her lessons

alone

[Music]

she became angry

and we argued

i refused to change my mind

and she stormed out

alone

[Music]

later that afternoon emanuela called

home and spoke with our sister fred rico

she said that on her way to the music

school

a man had stopped her to offer a great

job distributing promotional materials

for avondale

emmanuella left school

and walked along corso rinacimento to

the bus stop in front of the senate

building

one of the last people to see her was

her classmate

maria grazia cassini

manuela

finis

parker

emanuela should have been on her way

home

but she stayed behind

presumably to meet the man who'd offered

her the avon job

my elder sister natalina remembers that

night like it was yesterday

that night

nobody slept

as my family prayed for emmanuela's

return

i searched the streets

at dawn

natalina went to the authorities

to file a missing person's report

[Music]

without police support we took matters

into our own hands

printing hundreds of posters

and rome awoke to emanuela's face

plastered throughout its streets

over the next ten days police continued

to ignore the case until a shocking

message confirmed that someone in power

was taking my sister's fate

seriously

[Music]

[Music]

the pope's words took us by surprise

they referenced information that we

emanuela's family didn't have

he spoke of those responsible

he implied that emmanuella had been

kidnapped

this was an astonishing revelation

but why had the police told us this

and what else might the pope know about

emmanuela's whereabouts

as we struggle to understand

the pope's statement also made waves in

the media

andrea purgatory is a journalist who

followed the story of my sister's

disappearance for the last 35 years

and i hoped he could shed some new light

on the case

nobody

[Music]

it seemed likely that as the pope shared

his message with the public

he was hiding key information about my

sister's disappearance

but why

the pope's words may have been intended

for immanuel's kidnappers

but they also moved a local traffic

patrolmen to come forward with an

important tip about the day my sister

went missing

[Music]
uh

[Music]

the witness worked with police to create

a composite sketch

of the man believed to have kidnapped

emmanuella

who is this man

[Music]

13 days after my sister disappeared

my father received a shocking phone call

[Music]

uh

graduated

the kidnappers call gave us new hope

hope that swelled when we learned that

they had also called the vatican press

room

police in rome had been treating it as a

tragic but more or less routine

kidnapping of a young girl but then

today richard roth reports a phone call

changed all that

an editor at the italian news agency

ansa who took the call said the voice

was that of a nervous young man with a

startling claim

we have emmanuela orlandi we will free

her only when mehmed ali aja the papal

attacker is free

ajah is serving a life sentence for

shooting the pope two years ago

investigators here are now trying to

find out whether the vatican's first

kidnapping in modern times may also

provide clues to the attempted

assassination here two years ago of pope

john paul

[Music]

the kidnappers gave authorities only 14

days to secure ali aga's release

they also said that a basket in a public

square near parliament

contained proof that emanuela was indeed

in their possession

when the police located the basket they

found photocopies of my sister's music

school id

a receipt

and a note in her handwriting

[Applause]

but how could the attempted

assassination of the pope be related to

emmanuela's disappearance

[Music]

three days before the july 20th deadline

pope john paul ii made another public

plea to the kidnappers

standing outside his window in front of

thousands of people for the whole world

to see

[Music]

never before had a pope been so

outspoken about a civilian crime

um

[Music]

in rome today after pope john paul

pleaded for the life of fifteen-year-old

emmanuel orlandy her alleged kidnappers

released a tape recording of a woman

crying out in pain

at times i was sure i could make out of

manuela's voice

but since no male voices could be heard

i knew the recording had been edited

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

oh

[Applause]

i would later obtain a confidential file

from the secret service that contained

the original transcript

here were the missing male voices

this is

why would such important evidence be

edited out by the secret service

and more importantly

who were these men

the same day they sent the recording the

kidnappers demanded a direct phone line

to discuss my sister's release

but they weren't talking to the police

they wanted to negotiate with the

vatican

communicated

indicated

[Music]

[Music]

cardinal agostino casaroli was the

vatican's secretary of state and

renowned for his skillful diplomacy in

international matters

[Music]

but the recording stops when cardinal

cassaroli takes the call

to this day the vatican refuses to

reveal what was said between their

secretary of state and the men who

kidnapped my sister

[Music]

is

[Music]

the deadline to release aliaga and

potentially save my sister was only

three days away

so why were the police removing

themselves from the negotiations

[Music]

why were they letting the vatican do

their job

[Music]

[Music]

the july 20th deadline came and went

aliaga remained in prison and the

kidnappers went silent

we had no idea if emanuela was dead or

alive

throughout this ordeal my father

remained faithful in his work for john

paul ii

they spoke on a daily basis but never of

my sister's disappearance

it would have been deemed disrespectful

for an employee to question the pope

and despite my family's agony the pope

never volunteered any new information

driven by sheer desperation

my father took action

making a candid plea to the kidnappers

[Music]

[Music]

lay

[Music]

by christmas eve emmanuela had been

missing for six months

with no new evidence or contact from the

kidnappers

we were alone with our worst fears

but a surprise visit

pulled us out of our

despair pope john paul ii

shed new light into the dark mystery of

the manuela's fate

he said there were two types of

terrorism

national

and international

[Music]

our loss he said

was caused by international terrorism

and he would do everything in his power

to bring emanuela

home

[Music]

my mother and father were overcome with

gratitude for the pope

who had not given up on finding my

sister alive

his words renewed our confidence in the

vatican state authorities

during this same visit

john paul ii

unexpectedly offered me a job at the

vatican bank

as a 23 year old with no relevant

experience

i was delighted

[Music]

but i would come to wonder was the pope

simply trying to comfort us

[Music]

why did he blame international terrorism

what else did he know

and why wouldn't he tell us

over 20 years would pass without any new

leads into emanuela's disappearance

the pope's promise to my family

was a distant memory

my father had devoted his life to the

vatican

and to the three popes he served

[Music]

but by the time of his death in 2004

he had lost all confidence in the

catholic church

with his last breath

he lamented

i have been betrayed by whom i served

faithfully

[Music]

soon after in april of 2005 pope john

paul ii fell ill

slipped into a coma

and passed away

i'd always believed that the pope would

one day share the truth about my sister

but that hope died along with him

his last wishes

personality bruciati

with those final words we were sure that

he had taken the secret of my sister's

disappearance to the grave

[Music]

but a year later

i learned that pope john paul ii had

appointed don stanislaus

a longtime and influential aide to carry

out his final requests

and that stanislaus had defied the

pope's wishes

he declared i did not burn them

they were too important

i called the john paul ii foundation for

over a decade hoping to be granted

access to the personal notes that don

stanislau kept

but every request was denied

maybe today in 2017

the answer would be different

[Music]

foreign

after 34 years of questions

i was ready to get some answers from

john paul the second

[Music]

segundo

i searched for hours but found no trace

of the pope's personal notes

nothing

[Music]

could they have been moved

perhaps they were never here to begin

with

[Music]

after the death of john paul ii don

stanislaus was appointed archbishop of

krakow and poland

and was thus referred to as cardinal

zeus

i was determined to reach him

[Music]

salve

[Music]

okay

signal

[Music]

[Music]

orlando

cardinal stanislaus zouis never replied

to my email

or returned any of my calls

given the vatican's enduring silence my

only hope was that someone outside the

church
might come forward with new information

about my sister

on september 12 2005

22 years after i last saw emmanuela

my prayers were answered

a local news station received a tip that

added a whole new dimension to the case

of my sister's disappearance

the newspaper started reporting on

emmanuella's case again

and with that

my hope of finding the truth was renewed

enrico de pedes was the first person to

be admitted to the santa polinera

cemetery in over a century

what could make this man a known

gangster worthy of burial alongside the

most revered and respected figures in

rome

i demanded that the authorities unearth

enrico de pedes tomb to look for clues

that might lead to the truth about my

sister

but my pleas were ignored

so i turned to the media

alongside us

in hopes that public pressure

would force a change of heart

many people expressed solidarity

and showed great support in my search

for the truth

[Music]

[Applause]

but the police the secret service and

the vatican remained silent

just as they had been for over two

decades

no one came forth with an official

explanation as to why de pede's tomb

shouldn't be

excavated or why he'd been buried at

saint apollinas in the first place

[Music]

[Music]

despite three years of effort i hadn't

been able to convince the authorities to

excavate the petty's tomb

[Music]

but on the 25th anniversary of

emmanuela's disappearance a journalist

called with an extraordinary story

involving de pedis and a renowned beauty

sabrina menardi

in the late 1970s minardi was a famous

figure in rome

married to a football superstar

bruno giordano

but in 1982 she created a scandal

leaving giornardo for the pedis

and 26 years later minardi had gone to

the police with an official statement

regarding the events of june 22

1983.

the day emanuela went missing

their report reads

so

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

peso

archbishop paul casimir marcinkos

head of the vatican bank

i knew this man

he was my boss for many years

starting when the pope offered me a job

at the vatican bank on that christmas

eve

of 1983

is

[Music]

looking back on that evening when pope

john paul ii offered me a job

i had new questions

why

of all places in the vatican would he

want me in the bank

was it so marcinkus could keep an eye on

me as i fought to uncover the truth

about my sister

when i worked at the vatican bank i had

no knowledge of the magliana gang's

possible involvement in my sister's

abduction

or the connections that de pedes had

with marcinkus and the vatican

[Music]

after 26 years of service

i left the vatican bank in 2009

the vatican's official explanation was

early retirement

but in fact i was pushed out

perhaps i was getting too close to the

truth

[Music]

i continued to pressure vatican

officials to excavate the petty's tomb

until finally in 2012

they agreed

[Music]

roma

[Music]

face plastered all over tv and

newspapers

i suddenly made a connection to the

first piece of evidence related to my

sister's disappearance

the composite drawing described by the

traffic patrolmen back in 1983

was none other than enrico de pedes

i finally knew who had kidnapped my

sister

although no clues related to my sister

were found in the petty's tomb

it became common knowledge that the

vatican had a business relationship

with the italian mafia

[Music]

shortly after the excavation the stories

began to circulate describing huge sums

of criminal money being laundered by the

vatican bank

money that was said to have disappeared

it became frightfully clear that

emmanuel's abduction was connected to

that money

and had nothing to do with aliaka

the attempted papal assassin

that story was fabricated by the vatican

and the mafia to divert the public's

attention away from the real culprits

and alejaka

was merely a character in their

deceptive play

[Music]

[Music]

if my sister was kidnapped because the

magliana gang wanted their money back

from the vatican bank

it begs the question

why would the vatican take these large

sums of money in the first place

what did they need

that only dirty money could buy

i found the answer to those questions

when i got a hold of a document that

banker roberto garvey had written to

pope john paul

ii in his june 1982 letter

calvi threatened to expose the vatican

for using stolen gang money to finance a

rising liberal polish trade union

solidarity

the only one of its kind in the

communist eastern bloc

one year before my sister disappeared

calvi writes

[Music]

roberto

twelve days later calvi was found dead

in london's thames river

estate assassinated

pope john paul ii was using mafia money

to fight communism

it may have been a good cause

but his actions were illegal and

dangerous
and he chose to protect himself

in the end my sister was sacrificed on

the altar of the cold war to expedite

the collapse of the soviet union

in 2016 more secrets seeped through the

vatican walls

i learned that the vatican state and the

italian government had been quietly

negotiating over my sister's case

journalist gianluigi nucci had access to

the discussions

it was now clear why the vatican allowed

the petty's tomb to be excavated in

2012.

the italian government agreed to move to

petty's body out of the vatican

and the vatican in exchange would share

information about emmanuela's

disappearance

but where is that information

what happened to my sister

in light of this new information i filed

an official complaint through one of

rome's top lawyers

laura sugoro

[Music]

our carefree and peaceful existence

within the walls of the smallest state

in the world is now a distant memory

emanuela the privilege of being born a

vatican citizen

would become a sentence of doom

[Music]

and a tainted legacy that would deprive

us of the truth

a truth that has only become more

incomprehensible

as the years pass

on april 27 2014

pope john paul ii

was canonized

in the eyes of the vatican

he was a saint

[Music]

[Applause]

i believe that pope francis like his

predecessors knows emmanuela's fate

35 years have passed since my sister was

taken from us

since then

my citizenship to the vatican city was

revoked

when i married an outsider

i was forced to retire early from the

vatican bank

[Music]

i have asked too many questions that the

vatican does not want to answer

i am now unwelcome within the walls that

once surrounded my happy childhood

but the pain i feel for my sister is

stronger than the vatican's resistance

the barricades to the truth that

surrounded my family in this state where

my father devoted his life to the pope

must fall

now there is an official complaint

implicating the state authorities in

emmanuela's disappearance

they must take responsibility

and tell us what they know

this time

there will be no secret negotiations

i will find the truth

i will bring justice to my sister