Angelo Sodano

Angelo Raffaele Sodano entered the Vatican's diplomatic corps in 1959 and spent a decade as papal nuncio to Chile starting in 1978. In 1991 he became Cardinal Secretary of State, the Church's top diplomat, and held the post for fifteen years under John Paul II and Benedict XVI. In 2005 he also became Dean of the College of Cardinals, the first person in nearly two centuries to hold both offices at once. Benedict accepted his resignation as Secretary of State in 2006. Then, in December 2019, a report surfaced that Sodano had shielded sexually abusive clergy in the Legion of Christ; Pope Francis…