Italian Cardinal Caprio, who helped guide Vatican finances, dies

Published: 2005-10-17

ROME (CNS) -- Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Caprio, who helped guide Vatican financial and investment policies under Pope John Paul II, died at age 90 in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI, who was to preside over Cardinal Caprio's funeral Oct. 18, called him a "diligent collaborator of five popes." Cardinal Caprio's death Oct. 15 left the College of Cardinals with 180 members. A native of a small town in southern Italy, Cardinal Caprio began his Vatican career as a diplomat, serving first at the Vatican's nunciature in Nanjing, China. He was expelled from China along with other Vatican diplomats in 1951, two years after the Communist Party came to power. He later served in diplomatic postings in Vietnam, Taiwan and India. He spent 23 years in the Far East, where he learned Chinese and the use of the abacus, an ancient calculating instrument.

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