Career
His plan was to bring the youths to Naples, train them as priests, and let them go back to China as missionaries. All six travelers reached Italy by the way of Canton and London, where George I of Great Britain received them at his palace in 1724. All four Ripa"s Chinese seminarians were eventually ordained (Giovanni Gu and Giovanni Yin in 1734, Philipo Huang and Lucio Wu in 1741), but only three made it back to China.
Ripa several times severely punished Lucio Wu for insubordination, and eventually, in June 1744, Ripa asked Propaganda not to send the young priest to position in China because of his "immaturity".
Devastated, Lucio soon fled the college and disappeared, until Ripa found him in the monastery of Monte Cassino the following spring. Subject to disciplinary punishments, he soon fled again.
He was arrested in September 1745 in Senigallia, after travelling with forged priest"s credentials throughout the Papal States, and occasionally celebrating a Mass at various churches. This time, Lucio was sentenced to a year of imprisonment in the Chinese College.
But Ripa felt that this was not enough.
In a letter dated March 29, 1746 - the day of his death - Ripa asked Propaganda for life imprisonment for the Chinese priest. The cardinals obliged, and Lucio was imprisoned in Rome"s Castel Sant"Angelo. His pleas for pardon were rejected by Propaganda, especially as Ripa"s successor at the Chinese College, French
Fatigati, supported Ripa"s negative assessment of Lucio.
The Chinese priest died in Italy in 1763.