The Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini has died at the age of 95, after a long phase of declining health. The cardinal, originally from Modena, wielded enormous influence in the Roman Curia.
The most significant positions of his clerical career included his role as vicar general of the Diocese of Rome for 17 years, as well as his service as president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference for three consecutive terms.
From 2010 to 2014, under Pope Benedict XVI, he led an international commission established by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to investigate the apparitions of Medjugorje.
From this came the “Ruini Report,” which concluded that the first apparitions in 1981 likely had supernatural origins, but it became more difficult to verify anything after that time.
Cardinal Ruini’s strongest papal friendship was with Pope St. John Paul II, with whom he spoke frequently and whom he always described as “the greatest.”
