Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, who as the vocal patriarch of Lebanon’s Maronite Christians pressured Syria to end its 15-year occupation — after initially supporting Syrian intervention to help end his country’s civil war — died on Sunday in Beirut. He was 98.

“The Maronite Church is orphaned and Lebanon is in sadness,” the church, an Eastern Rite Catholic sect, said in a statement announcing his death issued from Bkirki, the seat of the patriarchate, where Cardinal Sfeir presided from 1986 until he retired in 2011. He had been hospitalized two weeks earlier with a chest infection.

Pope Francis took note of the cardinal’s death. “A staunch defender of his country’s sovereignty and independence, he will remain a great figure in Lebanon’s history,” the pope said, as reported by Vatican News.

Cardinal Sfeir was an outspoken critic of what he saw as political and social injustice in the Middle East. On the religious plane, he was instrumental in revising the Maronite Missal to return to a more traditional liturgy.