Martin Scorsese, Russell Crowe, Whoopi Goldberg and Eva Longoria are among stars remembering late pope who died aged 88

• Pope Francis tributes – latest updates

Numerous celebrities, many among the nearly 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide, expressed condolences for the late Pope Francis, who died early on Monday – the morning after Easter Sunday – at the age of 88.

Martin Scorsese, who has grappled with Catholic faith in several of his films, called Pope Francis, “in every way, a remarkable human being,” in a statement to Variety. “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.”