The news agency said the cardinal had been hospitalized for pneumonia earlier this month, after testing positive for Covid-19. I had been in poor health for a long time.
In a telegram sent on Saturday to the cardinal’s sister, Pope Francis expressed his condolences.
“I remember his diligent work alongside so many of my predecessors, who entrusted him with important responsibilities in Vatican diplomacy, even the delicate post of Secretary of State,” Francis said.
Sodano was a Vatican presence for a long time, having served two popes as secretary of state and as dean of the College of Cardinals. He remained influential even when he retired.
But he faced serious criticism during the church’s sexual abuse crisis. In 2005, during a meeting with then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, she asked him to intervene in a sexual abuse lawsuit in the state of Kentucky, which appointed the Vatican as a defendant. But she declined, the National Catholic Reporter said at the time.
Over the following years, he was repeatedly pressured to minimize sexual abuse or block investigations into the scandal.