US: US archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who oversaw the Roman Catholic Church's finances for 18 years and was linked to a major Italian banking scandal, has died in the US, ANSA news agency reported yesterday.
Marcinkus was president of the Vatican Bank from 1971 to 1989, holding the purse strings to Catholic coffers which made him one of the most powerful men in the church. However his reputation was badly damaged by allegations that he was linked to the fraudulent collapse in 1982 of Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's largest private banking failure.
In the mid-1980s Italian authorities tried to arrest him in connection with an array of financial crimes, but the Vatican claimed diplomatic immunity for him and shielded him from the investigations.
Marcinkus himself denied any wrong-doing, and he was eventually allowed to return to the US and the diocese of Phoenix, Arizona.
ANSA said news of his death reached the Vatican yesterday morning, and was subsequently confirmed by the church in Phoenix.
