Vatican pressed to investigate case of girl missing for 30 years

Several hundred demonstrators carrying pictures of Emanuela Orlandi, an Italian girl missing for nearly 30 years, rallied behind the brother of the girl, Piero Orlandi, at St. Peter's Square on Sunday, to urge the Vatican to” open a serious investigation into the case," CNN said.

Supporters of the Orlandi family chanted ‘Truth, Truth’ while holding white balloons and banners, some wearing headbands bearing the picture of the abducted girl, a day after Italian prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo told CNN that a priest who used to run a church in Rome was under investigation on suspicion of complicity in the abduction.

The priest, Msgr. Piero Vergari, the former rector of Sant'Apollinare, along with four members of a criminal gang, was being investigated in connection with the disappearance, which some quarters believed she was abducted for sexual reasons.

A former mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, expressed hope the Vatican would take heed with the demonstrators’ plea for the girl’s justice saying "The Vatican attitude has changed, they are more cooperative."

Orlandi was aged 15 when she was abducted after a flute lesson at a music school on the grounds of Sant'Apollinaire late on the afternoon of June 22, 1983, spawning conspiracy theories pointing the finger at everything from the Mafia to the Vatican itself.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/27/world/europe/vatican-missing-girl/index.html?hpt=hp_t3