Francesco Colasuonno (2 January 1925 – 31 May 2003) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as a Vatican diplomat for more than two decades. He had the personal title of archbishop and at the end of his service became a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Biography

Colasuonno was born in

Grumo Appula Grumo Appula ( Barese: ; ) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. The town is a few kilometers inland from the port of Bari on the Adriatic Sea and it has a population of about 12,200. . It is part of th ...

, Bari, Italy. He was ordained a priest 1947 and then taught for more than a decade in the seminary in Bari while earning doctorates in theology and canon law. He served in the office of the Holy See's Secretariat of State beginning in 1958 and then in the Vatican diplomatic corps. After working in the United States from 1962 to 1967 and then in India and Republic of China (also known as

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

nowadays), his assignments included apostolic delegate to Mozambique from 1974 to 1981; pro-nuncio to Zimbabwe from 1981 to 1985; pro-nuncio to Yugoslavia from 1985 to 1986; papal envoy for Eastern Europe from 1986 to 1990; nuncio to the Soviet Union (and its successor, the Russian Federation) from 1990 to 1994, and nuncio to Italy from 1994 to 1998.He was the first Apostolic Delegate to Mozambique and the first papal nuncio to the Soviet Union. His work in Eastern Europe coincided with the special interest the Vatican took in the region under John Paul II and the breakup of the Soviet Union and the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

. Much of his work involved locating communities of Catholics that had survived under communism and in persuading governments to permit the Vatican to reestablish churches and especially to appoint bishops. After years of negotiation, he consecrated three bishops in Czechoslovakia in 1988. To locate Catholics in Vladivostok, he walked around the city in his cassock to make himself known. He was named

Titular Archbishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Truentum in 1975 and consecrated in February. Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal at a

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church *Consistor ...

on 21 February 1998. He retired that year. He died in his birthplace, Grumo Appula, on 31 May 2003. He was entombed in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Bari.

References

External links

Vatican Biography, 31 May 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colasuonno, Francesco 20th-century Italian cardinals People from the Metropolitan City of Bari 1925 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishops Cardinals created by Pope John Paul II Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy alumni Apostolic nuncios to Poland Apostolic nuncios to Italy Apostolic nuncios to Mozambique Apostolic nuncios to Yugoslavia Apostolic nuncios to Zimbabwe 21st-century Italian cardinals