A funeral Mass will be offered Feb. 12 in Wisconsin for Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa Sigrid Simlik, who died Jan. 23. Sister Sigrid, a former teacher at St. Rose of Lima School in Brookland, was 97.

Five cardinals bid their farewell Jan. 17 to Angelo Gugel, the pontifical butler and witness to modern papal history, who stood silently behind St. John Paul II for nearly three decades, and contributed to saving the pope on the day of the assasination attempt.

John Allen never believed journalism was about winning arguments or pleasing audiences. He believed it was about fidelity — to facts, to sources, to context and ultimately to readers.

John Allen, the editor-in-chief of Crux whose decades-long career in journalism defined him as one of the authoritative voices on the Vatican and the Catholic Church, has died at the age of 61.

Salesian Father Giuseppe Zanardini, an Italian-born priest and scholar who profoundly shaped the study of Indigenous anthropology in Paraguay, died on Jan. 19 at age 83, the South American country’s Salesian congregation announced.

Sister Christina Christie, a former Anglican nun who played a pivotal role in guiding her Catonsville-based women’s religious community into full communion with the Catholic Church, died Dec. 5. She was 94 and had been a member of the Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor for 59 years.

Crowds gathered in the French coastal town of Saint-Tropez to bid a final farewell to actress Brigitte Bardot.

Redemptorist Father John Murray, a visionary former pastor of St. Wenceslaus in Baltimore and St. Mary in Annapolis whose courage in the face of long-term paralysis inspired many, died Dec. 30. He was 77.

A former teacher at Trinity School in Ilchester, she also served in the Archdiocese of Washington and Kenya, where she worked with children with disabilities and helped people start small businesses.

Russell Shaw, a veteran Catholic journalist who led communications for the U.S. bishops and Knights of Columbus and authored numerous articles and books, died Jan. 6 at the age of 90 in Silver Spring.