Lower House votes to set up Orlandi inquiry

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 23 - The Lower House on Wednesday voted to set up a joint parliamentary commission of inquiry into the disappearance of Vatican teenagers Emanuela Orlandi and Mirella Gregori in 1983.
    The bill passed unanimously with 245 votes in favour, and now goes to the Senate for final approval.
    "There is the will to provide clarity," said Pietro Orlandi, older brother of the then 15-year-old who disappeared while returning home from a flute lesson in Rome on 22 June 1983.
    "Today I felt the closeness of the institutions, and I must say also their affection," added Pietro, saying he was "moved".
    Sightings of Orlandi in various places have been reported over the years, including inside Vatican City, but all have been unreliable. The girl's disappearance sparked an intense media frenzy in Italy that has resulted in the case being called "Italy's most famous unsolved mystery".
    Emanuela was the fourth of five children of Ercole and Maria Orlandi. Her father was a worker at the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), the Vatican Bank), according to some reports, or an employee of the papal household, according to others. The family lived inside Vatican City, and the children had the free run of the Vatican gardens, according to Pietro.
    Gregori was also 15 when she went missing in the same year, a month before Orlandi. (ANSA).