According to Vatican News, Cardinal Angelo Sodano died on Friday at the age of 94 in Rome.

The cardinal had been hospitalised for pneumonia earlier this month after testing positive for Covid-19, according to the news agency. He had been ill for quite some time.

Pope Francis conveyed his condolences to the cardinal’s sister in a telegram issued on Saturday.

“I recall his hard effort alongside so many of my predecessors. Who entrusted him with crucial duties in Vatican diplomacy, up to and including the sensitive post of secretary of state,” Francis remarked.

Sodano was a long-serving Vatican official, having served as secretary of state and dean of the College of Cardinals under two popes. Even after his retirement, he remained prominent.

During the church sexual abuse scandal, though, he received a lot of flak. He allegedly urged then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intercede in a sexual abuse case in Kentucky that identified the Vatican as a defendant in 2005 during a meeting with her. The National Catholic Reporter reported at the time that she declined.

During the years that followed, he was constantly chastised for downplaying sexual assault and obstructing inquiries into the incident.