Vatican City, Sep 4, 2019 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a frequent collaborator of Pope St. John Paul II, has died at 96.

Etchagaray, from the French Basque region, was born in Espelette on September 25, 1922.

He attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, obtaining licentiate in theology and a doctorate of canon law.

He was ordained a priest in 1947 and incardinated in the Diocese of Bayonne.