ROME: Italian cardinal Angelo Sodano, right-hand guy to former popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, has died on the age of 94, the Vatican introduced on Saturday. The Vatican power-broker lower a debatable determine in recent times, related to many controversies, however wielded nice affect over the church below the 2 popes within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s.
Pope Francis paid tribute to “this esteemed guy of the Church, who fulfilled his priesthood with generosity… within the carrier of the Holy See,” in a telegram addressed to the circle of relatives and printed by means of the Vatican. Sodano died on Friday in Rome the place he were hospitalised since Might 9 after checking out certain for COVID-19, consistent with the professional information web site Vatican Information. The Vatican didn’t supply main points on his explanation for loss of life. His funeral will probably be hung on Tuesday at St Peter’s Basilica, with Pope Francis attending. John Paul II made Sodano his second-in-command when he named him secretary of state in 1991. Sodano accompanied him on round 50 overseas journeys.
After Benedict XVI’s appointment in 2005, Sodano stayed within the submit till September 2006. The then pope additionally authorized Sodano’s election as Dean of the School of Cardinals in 2005, final within the submit on the time of Benedict XVI’s resignation in 2013.
Pope Francis then approved Sodano’s resignation in 2019 after he garnered grievance over his fortify for monks accused of wrongdoing. Critics condemned Sodano’s involvement in lots of scandals. In a single reveal, Nationwide Catholic Reporter weekly alleged that Sodano safe Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican-born founding father of the Legion of Christ spiritual order.
Maciel lived for years with a lady with whom he had a kid and was once additionally accused of getting sexually abused kids and seminarians. He died in 2008. Sodano was once additionally one of the vital central characters of French journalist Frederic Martel’s e-book, “Within the Closet of the Vatican: Energy, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy”, which referred to the cardinal’s way of life in Rome and his hyperlinks to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet right through his time in Chile.
Born on November 23, 1927, Sodano was once the second one of six kids in a circle of relatives residing within the the town of Isola d’Asti in Piedmont area, northwestern Italy. His father was once a lawmaker between 1948 and 1963. Sodano studied theology and canon legislation and was once ordained a clergyman in 1950.
He then started a diplomatic profession with the Vatican in 1959 with a number of posts in a foreign country, particularly in South The us. In 1977, the then pope, Paul VI, appointed Sodano as apostolic nuncio in Chile. He additionally up to now served in Ecuador and Uruguay. He returned to Rome in 1988 prior to taking over a job very similar to that of overseas minister in 1989. — AFP