Vatican: Seal of Confession Not Violated in "Vatican girl" Investigation

“I had only spoken about it with the confessor,” she said, noting that she had also told her boyfriend at the time. 

In the Vatican statement published the day after the press conference, Bruni clarified that the confessional seal had not been broken in the Orlandi investigation.

“Regarding the reports involving a relative of Emanuela, it is noted that the correspondence in question expressly indicates that there was no violation of the sacramental seal of confession,” Bruni said on July 12.

“The Holy See shares the family’s desire to arrive at the truth about the actions and, to this end, hopes that all hypotheses of the investigation will be explored,” he said.

Emanuela Orlandi was the teenage daughter of Ercole Orlandi, an envoy of the Prefecture of the Pontifical House and a citizen of Vatican City State. Her disappearance on June 22, 1983, after leaving for a music lesson in Rome, has dominated headlines in Italy and been the subject of speculation for decades.

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Public interest in the case was also rekindled last fall after the release of “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi” on Netflix.

The true-crime docuseries, which premiered on the streaming service in October 2022, featured interviews with subjects who proffer numerous theories about Orlandi’s disappearance ranging from the involvement of Italian organized crime to a theory that the Vatican was involved in some way in Orlandi’s disappearance. Meneguzzi was not looked at by the series.

The latest Italian media reports highlight how Meneguzzi’s appearance resembled that of an identikit facial composite drawing of a man who was seen talking to Orlandi after her music lesson. La 7 reported that Meneguzzi also had played an important role in answering the calls that came from alleged kidnappers after Orlandi’s disappearance.

Orlandi’s brother Pietro pushed back against the implication of his uncle, saying that Meneguzzi was not in Rome on the day of Emanuela’s disappearance and accused the Vatican of seeking to deny any form of responsibility. He called on the Italian Parliament to vote in favor of opening a bicameral commission of inquiry to find the truth in Orlandi’s case.

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.