Cardinal Camillo Ruini is dead at 95. A giant of the Church in Italy at the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first, Ruini was, perhaps, the last truly great Italian churchman.

In a telegram expressing condolences on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV remembered Ruini as an “experienced and wise brother, characterized by deep faith, keen intelligence, and far-sighted vision, who served the Gospel and the Church with discretion and self-sacrifice.”

Leo especially recalled Ruini’s “fruitful work for the Italian bishops’ conference” of which he was president for nearly two decades, as well as Runi’s “productive dialogue with the world of culture.”