Pope Francis rejects insinuations against John Paul ii

After the recitation of the Regina Caeli on Sunday, 16 April, Pope Francis defended his predecessor Saint John Paul ii , who in recent days has been at the centre of slanderous accusations linked to the disappearance, 40 years ago, of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi. Pope Francis defined the accusations, made on the basis of anonymously spread rumours and with no witnesses or evidence, as “offensive and unfounded”. After greeting the groups of Divine Mercy devotees present in Saint Peter’s Square, the Holy Father said, “Certain of interpreting the feelings of the faithful throughout the world, I direct a grateful thought to the memory of Saint John Paul ii , the object of offensive and unfounded inferences these past few days”.