Angelo Sodano (23 November 1927-27 May 2022) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church from 1991 to 2022 and the Dean of the College of Cardinals from 30 April 2005 to 21 December 2019.
Biography[]
Angelo Sodano was born in Isola d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy on 23 November 1927, the son of a Christian Democracy deputy. He was ordained a priest in 1950, and, in 1977, he became titular Archbishop of Nova Caesaris and apostolic nuncio to Chile. In 1980, he failed to convince Augusto Pinochet to allow the return of certain political exiles, and, in 1987, Sodano arranged for Pope John Paul II to meet Chilean opposition leaders during his visit to the country. In 1991, Sodano became Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria Nuova, and he twice persuaded Pope Benedict XVI to stop investigations into child sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests. On 21 December 2019, Legion of Christ claimed that Sodano covered up reports of abuse while serving as Secretariat of State, and Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Dean of the College of Cardinals that same day; the Catholic Church claimed that his resignation was due to "advanced age." He died in 2022 at the age of 94.