Yesterday, Sunday April 17, during the Regina Caeli prayerhe Pope Francisco performed the following statement: “I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims! In particular the prayer groups that cultivate the spirituality of Divine Mercy, gathered today at the Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit in Sassia. And, sure to interpret the sentiments of the faithful of everyone, I direct a grateful thought to the memory of Saint John Paul IIthese days the object of offensive and unfounded accusations”.
Which he later repeated on Twitter:
On this Sunday of Divine Mercy, sure of interpreting the sentiments of the faithful throughout the world, I address a grateful thought to the memory of Saint John Paul II, in these days the object of offensive and unfounded accusations.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex_es) April 16, 2023
The context of this statement is the campaign of slander and defamation that the figure of Saint John Paul II, canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014, is suffering.
First, certain media published during the first two weeks of March alleged abuse cover-ups by Bishop Karol Wojtyla in three cases of priests accused of sexual abuse.
The Poles were quick to take to the streets to defend their national idol. And even the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawieckisaid: “Today we are passing the test of the values that he taught us. We passed the test of humanity and the values that are part of it. We passed the test of carrying the truth, which must oppose falsehoods, slander and insults “.
But it is that a second much more serious accusation has appeared against Saint John Paul II. he formulated it Peter Orlandi -brother of the 15 year old girl Emanuela Orlandi, disappeared 40 years ago and whose father worked in the Vatican, in a case that also involves the mafia-, in a TV program, when she affirmed that John Paul II secretly left the Vatican at night to engage in inappropriate behavior, collects aciprensa.
Orlandi made the statement on April 11 on the Italian television show Di Martedi, in which he appeared with his family’s lawyer, Laura Sgro. But both refused to report on the sources and evidence of the complaint.
Stanislaw Dziwiszwho was John Paul II’s personal secretary for nearly 40 years, came to the defense of the Polish Pope, calling Pietro’s statements “reckless,” and then pointing out that “it would be more accurate to immediately say ignoble insinuations
Faced with such an accusation, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwiszwho was John Paul II’s personal secretary for nearly 40 years, came to the Polish pope’s defense, calling Pietro’s remarks “reckless,” and then pointing out that “it would be more accurate to immediately say ignoble insinuations.”
Dziwisz also considered what happened in the case “painful” and expressed his hope that the image of Saint John Paul II can be freed “from the whirlwind of deceit, mythomania and looting.”
Cardinal Dziwisz described the case of Emanuela Orlandi as “a gigantic crime” and affirmed that it is just as “criminal to take advantage of it with uncontrollable ramblings, aimed at preventively discrediting people and environments until proven otherwise, worthy of esteem universal”. “This does not mean that the incomprehensible pain of a family that has not heard from her daughter for 40 years deserves all the respect, all the attention, all the closeness.”
On the other hand, according digital religionwho was the personal secretary of Benedict XVI, Georg Gänswein, recently clarified that “there is no dossier” on the young woman kidnapped 40 years ago in the personal archive of Benedict XVI. “There is no news in Benedict’s file.” Of course, he clarifies: “I asked Pope Benedict to make a memorandum on the case of Emanuela Orlandi and they gave me a memorandum in which there was nothing new,” adds Religión Digital.