Vagnozzi died in Rome, at age 74. After a funeral Mass presided by John Paul II in the Lateran Basilica, he was buried in the Campo Verano. His remains were later transferred to his cardinalitial church in March 1983.
Criticism
As the Vatican in modern times came under the criticism of the liberal press for reactionary policies, so was Vagnozzi accused in a 1967 press article for using his influence at the Vatican so as to permit only conservative US priests to become bishops: "His influence is thought to be heavily responsible for the conservative cast of those bishops appointed (in the United States) in recent years".[3]
Vagnozzi opposed the Marian apparition of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces, rejecting its Marian visionary Teresita Castillo, along with six Filipino local bishops who declared it "Non-Supernatural" in 1956. On 11 December 2015, the Vatican confirmed "the definitive nature of the 11 April 1951 decree by which the phenomena of Lipa were declared to lack supernatural origin."[4]