Vatican City, May 12, 2020 / 09:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has paid tribute to the Italian Cardinal Renato Corti, who died May 12 aged 84.

In a telegram Tuesday, the pope said the cardinal was “animated in all things by a passionate desire to communicate the Gospel of Christ.”

Corti preached the spiritual exercises to the Roman Curia in 2005 in the presence of St. John Paul II, who died later that year.