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Arch­bish­op Charles Ja­son Gor­don has de­scribed the pass­ing of Pope Fran­cis as “a pro­found loss for the Church and the world,” mourn­ing a man he called “a true shep­herd” and “a faith­ful dis­ci­ple of Christ.”

The Arch­bish­op re­spond­ed to news of the Pope’s death with deep sor­row. “We have lost a man of in­com­pa­ra­ble depth and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to Christ,” he said. “He kept the joy of the Gospel alive in our hearts, even as he called us to deep­er love—with­in our fam­i­lies, for our com­mon home, for the poor and mar­gin­alised, and for one an­oth­er across every di­vi­sion.”

Pope Fran­cis, Bish­op of Rome and Supreme Pon­tiff of the Catholic Church, led with courage through what Arch­bish­op Gor­don called “one of the most chal­leng­ing and com­plex pe­ri­ods of hu­man his­to­ry.”