Cardinal Camillo Ruini, an influential churchmen in Italy, died in Rome on the evening of June 16 at age 95.
He had been hospitalized last September with kidney problems and, after an initial recovery, saw his condition worsen in recent weeks. He chose to remain at home under medical care.
Born in Sassuolo, in the province of Modena, Ruini was ordained a priest in 1954.
He became auxiliary bishop of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla in 1983 and secretary-general of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) in 1986.
In 1991, Pope John Paul II appointed him to lead the Italian Bishops' Conference, named him Vicar General of Rome, and created him a cardinal. He held the Rome vicariate until 2008 and led the bishops’ conference until 2007.
He became, for nearly two decades, one of the closest collaborators of both John Paul II and later Benedict XVI.
His tenure as bishops’ president coincided with the collapse of the Democrazia Cristiana, the Christian Democratic party that had been the Church's political ally in Italy for decades. In its place, Ruini promoted what became known as the "cultural project": an effort to embed Catholic influence in state and society directly, beyond the old party structures.
After the Christian Democrats' decline in the mid-1990s, he became a prominent backer of longtime Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (1936–2023), arguing for continued Christian engagement in public life.
In 2010, Benedict XVI put him in charge of the Vatican commission investigating the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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