Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the death of Pope Fran­cis is a loss not just for the Catholic Church, but for all who val­ue hu­man­i­ty, jus­tice and com­pas­sion.

In a state­ment is­sued on be­half of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, Per­sad-Bisses­sar of­fered con­do­lences to the Vat­i­can, the glob­al and lo­cal Catholic com­mu­ni­ties, and “all peo­ple across the world.”

“In­deed, the Catholic Church and the world have lost one of our best cham­pi­ons of hu­man­i­ty, free­dom, and glob­al uni­ty,” she said.