Former ‘second man’ of Vatican Angelo Sodano passed away | Abroad

Pope Francis praises Sodano as an authoritative and generous priest and servant of the Vatican. The funeral service will be held on Tuesday in St. Peter’s Basilica and Pope Francis will be present.

Sodano was installed in 1991 by then Pope John Paul II as secretary of state, which is a sort of prime minister and foreign minister of the Vatican City. The secretary of state is the second man in the Vatican. Before that, he was a longtime envoy on behalf of Vatican City in Latin America. He held on to his senior position under Benedict XVI, who took office in 2005, for about a year and a half until 2006. He also held the influential position of Dean of the College of Cardinals until the end of 2019.

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