Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a skilled diplomat and troubleshooter dispatched by his friend Pope John Paul II to negotiate for the Roman Catholic Church with Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein and leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, died on Sept. 4 in his native French Basque country. He was 96.

His death, at a retirement community, was announced by the Vatican.

During his decades of service in the Roman Curia, the bureaucracy that governs the church, Cardinal Etchegaray headed the Vatican’s main relief agency and its department for peace and human rights. He visited Bosnia and Rwanda during their conflicts and paved the way for John Paul II’s historic visit to Cuba in 1998. He also led the church’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to stop the United States from invading Iraq.

“He was a zealous pastor and loved by the people he was called to serve,” Pope Francis said in a statement. “He was an adviser who was listened to and appreciated, especially in difficult situations for the life of the church in different regions of the world.”

Cardinal Etchegaray was a strong voice in the church against anti-Semitism and worked to repair Catholic relations with Jews. “Our thoughts must turn in particular to the Jewish people,” he said during a meeting of bishops in 1983, “because it is they who, among all peoples, must be the first beneficiaries of our double mission of reconciliation and penance.”