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VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the powerful former Vatican Secretary of State for two popes, has died aged 94.
Cardinal Sodano died May 27, after having been hospitalized in Rome’s Columbus Hospital-Gemelli for COVID-19 since May 9.
Sodano, who has been described as the “Vatican’s Godfather,” was mired in controversy over his alleged role in covering up clerical sexual abuse, particularly in the case of Marcial Maciel and ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
The Holy See was swift to announce Sodano’s death, and Pope Francis sent a telegram to the cardinal’s sister, Maria Sodano, expressing “gratitude” for the late cardinal and his “solitary work in support of three of my predecessors.”
“The death of Cardinal Angelo Sodano arouses in my soul feelings of gratitude to the Lord for the gift of this esteemed man of the Church, who lived his priesthood with generosity,” wrote Francis.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has told Nancy Pelosi, a pro-abortion Democrat, not to present herself for Holy Communion.
The archbishop is doing this to not only protect our Lord from sacrilege, but also to call Nancy Pelosi to repent from the grave sin of promoting abortion and from the sacrilegious communions that follow.
Archbishop Cordileone will now encounter sustained pressure to roll-back his decision, so we must stand with him today.
SIGN and SHARE this petition to stand with Archbishop Corileone as protects our Lord and Nancy Pelosi from further sacrilegious communions.
The Eucharist is the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ and no Catholic who has committed a mortal sin is to receive Holy Communion until confessing that sin in the Sacrament of Confession.
Nancy Pelosi's soul is in grave danger, not least because of sacrilegious communions as she continues a career-long crusade in support of killing unborn babies, and so the archbishop has done the most charitable thing possible in calling her to repentance and barring her from Holy Communion until she repents.
We must stand with this brave shepherd today, whom the people of San Francisco are lucky to call their archbishop.
SIGN the petition to support Archbishop Cordileone's brave defense of Our Lord in the Eucharist.
Pelosi said in March that that abortion “isn’t about what is your religious belief” and that “this really gets me burned up, in case you didn’t notice, because, again, I’m very Catholic – devout, practicing, all of that. They would like to throw me out, but I’m not going,” she joked, “because I don’t want to make their day."
What she doesn't understand is that her soul is at risk because of her support for spilling the innocent blood of unborn babies.
In a letter last month to Pelosi, Archbishop Cordileone made clear that “should you [Pelosi] not [publicly] repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
In announcing that the Speaker of the House is barred from Holy Communion, Cordileone made clear that he "will continue to offer up prayer and fasting for you [Pelosi].”
This is the heart of a true shepherd - Cordileone is a father willing to undergo all manner of insults and ridicule from the media and lukewarm Catholics in order to call one of his flock back to the fold.
SIGN the petition today to stand with Archbishop Cordileone as he faces into a storm of criticism.
MORE INFORMATION:
BREAKING: San Francisco archbishop bars Nancy Pelosi from Holy Communion
Pelosi: ‘Of course’ companies should pay employees to travel out of state for abortions
Bishop of pro-abortion Nancy Pelosi launches public campaign of ‘prayer and fasting’ for her
House Democrats vote to codify Roe v. Wade, legalize abortion on demand
Pelosi defends ‘pro-abortion Catholic’ stance, claims pro-lifers ‘don’t believe in governance’
**Photo: PatristicNectarFilms/YouTube**
Francis described Sodano as an “ecclesially disciplined man, an amiable pastor,” who carried out his “mission with remarkable dedication” in the Roman Curia.
The office for the Secretary of State for the Holy See stated over Twitter that it was “united in prayer over the loss” of the cardinal.
La Segreteria di Stato🇻🇦 si unisce in preghiera per la scomparsa dell’Eminentissimo Cardinale Angelo Sodano, Segretario di Stato emerito e Decano emerito del Collegio Cardinalizio. pic.twitter.com/ALjYkbvbPU
— Segreteria di Stato della Santa Sede (@TerzaLoggia) May 28, 2022
Sodano served as Vatican Secretary of State from 1991 through June 2006, under both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Benedict XVI re-affirmed Sodano as Secretary of State in 2005 despite the cardinal being past normal retirement age.
He was then appointed by Benedict XVI to be the Dean of the College of Cardinals in April 2005, a position he held until December 2019. Sodano had already served as vice-dean of the College of Cardinals in 2002.
Sodano’s span at the Vatican lasted 60 years, for he joined the Holy See’s Diplomatic Corps in 1959 and spent time as Nuncio in Chile before ascending to power under John Paul II as Secretary of State.
Despite Pope Francis’ praise for the cardinal, Sodano has been mired in controversy, accused of covering up clerical sexual abuse, and even of being an active homosexual himself.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 94, died. From the Chilean sexual abuse crisis, back to the scandals of the surrounding Legionaries of Christ founder, and even abuse allegations in Germany, Sodano’s name has emerged in each case: he either defended the abuser or cushioned their fall. pic.twitter.com/r4H0zW7ams
— Ines San Martin (@inesanma) May 28, 2022
Abuse cover-up
The highly influential cardinal was very closely linked to the pedophile priest Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, and was said to have protected and covered up for Maciel. As LifeSiteNews has previously reported, Sodano actively blocked efforts in the Vatican to investigate and reveal Maciel’s sexual improprieties.
These allegations were echoed by former Nuncio to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in his first testimony in August 2018, saying that “the person chiefly responsible for covering up the misdeeds committed by Maciel was then-Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano.”
In a subsequent testimony early 2020, Archbishop Viganò noted that Sodano “is certainly no stranger to McCarrick’s promotions…” The archbishop highlighted Sodano’s role in downplaying allegations about ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse, an action seen to be possible due to Pope John Paul II’s declining health and Sodano’s corresponding rise in power.
As noted by Luis Badilla in 2020, Sodano was “the real center of power in the context of the curial nomenklatura: from appointments in general to the curial game of ‘rise and fall’.”
“For years a leaf did not move in the Vatican unless Cardinal Sodano wanted it to,” said Badilla, adding how John Paul II’s pontificate was also the “reign’ of the Angelo Sodano-Stanislaw Dziwisz tandem.”
READ: Vatican sent bishop suspected of homosexuality to investigate abuse-ridden monastery
Following Sodano’s appointment by John Paul II as Secretary of State in 1991, “the power of Cardinal Sodano became total, absolute, incontrovertible, and often more incisive than that of Pope John Paul II.”
Active homosexual?
Following Sodano’s death, New York Times’ bestselling author Frederic Martel wrote that the cardinal was “La Montgolfiera,” a previously un-identified active homosexual in Martel’s book Sodoma (In the Closet of the Vatican). Himself a homosexual, Martel stated: “My rule was not to reveal the homosexuality of a living priest or cardinal. Now that he is dead, the truth can be written.”
SODOMA | I can reveal now that the person called “La Montgolfiera” in my book #Sodoma was #AngeloSodano. My rule was not to reveal the homosexuality of a living priest or cardinal. Now that he is dead, the truth can be written. #IntheClosetofTheVatican #Sodano @Pontifex pic.twitter.com/6ZlshkrwRz
— Frederic Martel (@martelf) May 28, 2022
In another tweet, Martel described Sodano as a “Great diplomatic figure, #2 in the Vatican under John Paul II, far-right nuncio in Chile, friend of Pinochet, active homosexual, defender of countless pedophile priests…He was the hero of my book #Sodoma (La Mongolfiera).” (Emphasis added.)
Help Brazilian pro-life hero raise his 42 disabled, adopted children: LifeFunder