Deacon Victor Petrosino, who brought imaginative lessons and communications skills he learned as a public school educator to his diaconal ministry at St. Margaret in Bel-Air, died Nov. 5. He was 84.

An 11 a.m. funeral mass for Franciscan Sister Elizabeth Mary Novak will be offered Nov. 6 at Assisi House in Aston, Pa. Sister Elizabeth died Nov. 3. She was 88 and had been a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 66 years.

Jesuit Father John R. Donahue, a noted professor at two Baltimore universities, died Oct. 28. The Baltimore native and Loyola Blakefield graduate was 91.

Cardinal Renato Martino, the former Vatican observer at the United Nations and former president of the pontifical councils for justice and peace and for migrants and travelers, died Oct. 28 at the age of 91.

Dominican Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, known as the “father of liberation theology,” which rose to prominence in South America in the 1960s and 1970s as a way of responding to the needs of Latin America’s poor, died Oct. 22 at age 96.

A funeral Mass for Franciscan Sister ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Frances Schiminsky (formerly Sister Ann Philip), will be offered Oct. 25 at Assisi House in Aston, Pa. Sister Frances died Oct. 21. She was 95 and had been a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 76 years.

In the majestic Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington during an Oct. 16 celebration of life for Ethel Skakel Kennedy, the singer Stevie Wonder honored his friend by singing the Our Father accompanied by a harpist, and then leading the congregation in a rousing version of “Isn’t She Lovely.”

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, a human rights activist and mother of 11, died Oct. 10, her family said. She was 96.

Monsignor James W. Hannon, a former pastor and director of the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s clergy personnel office who was beloved for his pastoral presence to people, died Oct. 6.

A beloved NBA superstar who got his start on the Georgetown University courts died Sept. 30. Dikembe Mutombo, class of 1991, passed away at age 58 from brain cancer.