Bishop Joseph Coffey, the auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese for Military Services in Washington, D.C., told Newsmax on Tuesday that Catholics across the world are mourning the loss of Pope Francis despite past disagreements “politically or economically.”

Coffey told “Newsline” that Catholics call the Pope “our Holy Father. He’s the vicar of Christ on earth, representing Jesus for the 1.4 billion Catholics on earth, so naturally, we’re all very sad.”

The bishop continued later: “This is a time of prayer. We pray for our Holy Father, we may have had disagreements with him politically or economically or things like that, but … he has the charisma of infallibility only in the area of faith and morals. So Catholics in good standing who love the Pope could disagree with him on other matters, maybe politically or economically, things like that” while still honoring him as the Holy Father.

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