Diddi met with Orlandi’s older brother, Piero, and his lawyer on April 11. According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, the meeting, requested by Orlandi, served as an occasion for Orlandi to “make his own statements and to offer any information in his possession to the file opened by the Vatican promoter of justice in January.”
“In January of this year, I received from the pope the task of dealing with the case and … I decided to bring together all the information found in a single file, having immediately understood the relevance of the material I had available,” Diddi said.
“In conjunction with this initiative, a parliamentary commission of inquiry was set up in Italy and therefore there will be fruitful collaboration between the two states.”
Pope Francis appointed Diddi as the chief prosecutor in September 2022. Prior to the appointment, Diddi was already serving as the lead investigator for the Vatican’s major finance trial against defendant Cardinal Angelo Becciu and nine others. He also has a background as a criminal defense lawyer in Rome.
Diddi clarified in the interview that his investigation is limited to the confines of Vatican City State. He said: “I enjoy broad autonomy, but for investigations on Italian soil I necessarily have to interface with the public prosecutor’s office of Rome and with the new prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi.”
The Vatican promoter of justice announced in January that the investigation into Orlandi’s case would be reopened in response to several requests made by her family.
