Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo joined the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty in mourn­ing the death of Pope Fran­cis, de­scrib­ing him as “a trans­for­ma­tion­al leader” and ex­press­ing con­do­lences to the Vat­i­can and the glob­al Catholic com­mu­ni­ty.

In a let­ter to Car­di­nal Gio­van­ni Bat­tista Re, dean of the Col­lege of Car­di­nals, Kan­ga­loo wrote: “On be­half of the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and on my own be­half, I ex­tend deeply felt con­do­lences to all with­in the Vat­i­can and to the wider com­mu­ni­ty of the faith­ful who have been un­der the Holy Fa­ther’s watch­ful care since his elec­tion as Pope on 13 March 2013.”

Kan­ga­loo praised his lega­cy of com­pas­sion and com­mit­ment to so­cial jus­tice, not­ing that he “served with deep hu­mil­i­ty and un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to up­lift­ing the mar­gin­alised and ad­dress­ing the most press­ing so­cial chal­lenges of our time”.

Dur­ing his pa­pa­cy, Fran­cis be­came a promi­nent ad­vo­cate for peace, pover­ty al­le­vi­a­tion, cli­mate ac­tion, and hu­man rights. Kan­ga­loo said he “brought a unique and em­pa­thet­ic voice to the Vat­i­can, re­shap­ing the glob­al Church’s mis­sion with a fo­cus on mer­cy, in­clu­siv­i­ty and so­cial jus­tice”.

She added that his lead­er­ship had “in­spired mil­lions and opened new paths for di­a­logue among peo­ple of di­verse be­liefs”.

Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young hailed Pope Fran­cis as “a great and hum­ble leader.” He re­act­ed to the pass­ing of the Pope with a post on Face­book prais­ing the Ar­gen­tin­ian pon­tiff who he said fo­cused on up­lift­ing the poor and vul­ner­a­ble.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so high­light­ed Pope Fran­cis’ de­sire for peace and the pro­mo­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al diplo­ma­cy.

“He ap­proached mod­ern top­ics with an open mind and was not afraid to sug­gest a need for change. He was a known ad­vo­cate for ac­tion on cli­mate change and showed gen­uine con­cern with re­gard to the treat­ment of mi­grants and of­ten called for more pro­tec­tion for mi­grants and oth­ers who found them­selves in vul­ner­a­ble cir­cum­stances,” he said.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Catholic Church and the world had “lost one of our best cham­pi­ons of hu­man­i­ty, free­dom, and glob­al uni­ty.”

She added, “His nat­ur­al charm, deep hu­mil­i­ty, gen­uine love for the poor, and keen in­ter­est and cham­pi­oning of con­tem­po­rary is­sues like glob­al cli­mate change en­deared him to not just the Catholic com­mu­ni­ty but the en­tire world, cast­ing him as hu­man­i­ty’s moral con­science.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the pope’s life will for­ev­er serve as a re­minder of our oblig­a­tion to build a cul­ture, lo­cal­ly and glob­al­ly, in which the strong pro­tect the weak, and jus­tice, fair­ness, dig­ni­ty and pro­gres­sive­ness is God’s ul­ti­mate gift for hu­man­i­ty.

“He was beloved, ex­tolled, and her­ald­ed by glob­al lead­ers for his ac­tivism in these caus­es, and ver­i­ta­bly seen as a uni­ver­sal guide and au­thor­i­ty fig­ure. Through­out his du­ti­ful, pi­o­neer­ing tenure, to the last days, when he ap­peared to a crowd de­spite his ill­ness, Pope Fran­cis re­mained an in­spi­ra­tion to all of hu­man­i­ty,” she said

On X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter) Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Colm Im­bert wrote: “Hu­mil­i­ty was Pope Fran­cis’ defin­ing char­ac­ter­is­tic. Since as­sum­ing the pa­pa­cy, he cre­at­ed con­nec­tions with peo­ple that pos­i­tive­ly al­tered per­cep­tion of the Pope’s role, with his deep com­mit­ment to so­cial jus­tice and the rights of the poor and dis­ad­van­taged.”

The trib­utes al­so poured in from re­gion­al lead­ers. Guyana Pres­i­dent Dr Ir­faan Ali said in a state­ment: “Pope Fran­cis was a shep­herd of com­pas­sion and con­science. His pon­tif­i­cate has had far-reach­ing im­pacts and as­sures him of a revered place in the his­to­ry of the pa­pa­cy and the course of hu­man his­to­ry.”

Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley post­ed to so­cial me­dia an im­age of her meet­ing the Pope and said the pon­tiff’s writ­ings and teach­ings had guid­ed and in­spired her through “the dark and des­o­late days” of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“The world to­day feels like a lone­ly place with the pass­ing of His Ho­li­ness, Pope Fran­cis. For me, Pope Fran­cis was the bea­con of glob­al moral strate­gic lead­er­ship. If we dare to live with heart, to serve with courage, hu­mil­i­ty, and to love with­out bor­ders—then Pope Fran­cis still walks among us,” she said.