Los Angeles, April 22 (IANS) Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese has shared a touching tribute as he honored the late Pope Francis.

The Pope passed away at the age of 88. The legendary director is a regular at the Vatican and had met with the Pope several times over the course of his career, building a rapport over their mutual appreciation for art, reports 'Variety'.

“There is so much that can be said about the significance of Pope Francis and everything he meant to the world, to the church, to the papacy. I will leave that to others", Scorsese said.

He told 'Variety', “He was, in every way, a remarkable human being. He acknowledged his own failings. He radiated wisdom. He radiated goodness. He had an ironclad commitment to the good. He knew in his soul that ignorance was a terrible plague on humanity. So he never stopped learning. And he never stopped enlightening. And, he embraced, preached and practiced forgiveness. Universal and constant forgiveness".

The legendary director continued, “The loss for me runs deep, I was lucky enough to know him, and I will miss his presence and his warmth. The loss for the world is immense. But he left a light behind, and it can never be extinguished".

As per 'Variety', in May 2023, Scorsese met with Pope Francis and announced that he would be making another film centered on Jesus, having previously portrayed the biblical figure in 1988’s 'The Last Temptation of Christ' starring Willem Dafoe and 2016’s 'Silence' with Andrew Garfield.

“I have responded to the Pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a film about Jesus", Scorsese said at the time. “And I’m about to start making it".

Though it’s unclear how far along in development the movie is, it was revealed last year that the film would be an adaptation of 'Silence' author Shusaku Endo’s novel 'A Life of Jesus' and that Scorsese is penning the script alongside his longtime collaborator Kent Jones.

Scorsese is one of many celebrities paying tribute to Pope Francis following his death, joining the ranks of Whoopi Goldberg, Russell Crowe, Antonio Banderas, Jimmy Fallon, Sylvester Stallone and more.