Cardinal Camillo Ruini Pope Leo XIV presided on June 18 over the funeral rites for Cardinal Camillo Ruini, remembering him as a servant of the Church who “knew how to guide the people of God.”
The funeral liturgy took place at the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s Basilica, two days after Ruini died late Tuesday, June 16. Several cardinals, archbishops, and bishops were present to bid farewell to one of the most prominent figures of the Italian Church.
“For many years he served the Church, carrying out with the same dedication both the humblest tasks and those most laden with responsibility that the Lord wished to entrust to him,” Pope Leo said in his homily.
The Pope recalled Ruini’s long and influential ecclesial service, pointing in particular to the initiatives that “left a deep mark on the journey of the ecclesial community and also on civil society.”
Among them, Leo cited Ruini’s “Cultural Project,” his efforts to promote the contribution of Catholics in Italian religious, civil, and political life, the diocesan synod in Rome and its implementation, and his “active and dialoguing presence at the various levels of the life of the Church, as well as of the secular world and society.”