Italian Cardinal Antonio Innocenti, a Vatican diplomat and onetime head of the Congregation for Clergy, died Sept. 6 at the age of 93.

In a telegram of condolences, Pope Benedict XVI praised Cardinal Innocenti, saying he had demonstrated "keen priestly enthusiasm and fidelity to the Gospel" throughout his long career.

Cardinal Innocenti was perhaps best known in his native Tuscany for his conduct during World War II, when he used his linguistic abilities to help save a number of people from Nazi deportation.

Convicted in a summary trial, he was led before a firing squad for execution, but at the last minute the order to shoot was revoked.

Once the war was over, he helped form an Italian Catholic social movement before enrolling in the Vatican's diplomatic academy. He eventually held a number of important diplomatic and Roman Curia posts.

As papal nuncio to Spain during a period of strained relations between the Catholic Church and the Socialist government in the early 1980s, he helped lead resistance to laws that liberalized abortion, introduced divorce and gave the government greater control over Catholic schools.

Named a cardinal in 1984, he went on to head the Congregation for Clergy in 1986. Throughout his term, he publicly defended the church's policy on priestly celibacy and firmly rejected the idea of women priests.

Later, he was president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," which works with separated traditionalist Catholics, and also headed a pontifical commission for the church's artistic patrimony.

Cardinal Innocenti's death leaves the College of Cardinals with 193 members. Of that number, 116 are under age 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a papal conclave.