Pope Francis called Jean Vanier to thank him before his death

Pope Francis told reporters May 7 he had been kept informed about Jean Vanier's failing health and had phoned him a week before his death.

"He listened to me, but he could barely speak. I wanted to express my gratitude for his witness," Pope Francis said May 7, the day Vanier died in Paris.

"He was a man who was able to read the Christian call in the mystery of death, of the cross, of illness, the mystery of those who are despised and discarded," the pope said.

But, also, Pope Francis said, Vanier stood up for those "who risk being condemned to death even before being born."