Monsignor Martin R. Strempeck, a much-loved priest and former pastor who devoted much of his ministry to comforting others, died Feb. 8. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien offered a funeral Mass Feb. 14 at St. Margaret in Bel, the parish where 82-year-old MonsignorStrempeck had retired but remained active in ministry until three months before his death.

Father Thomas T. Polk, a priest who threw himself into urban ministry and later led a fast-growing parish in Frederick County, died Nov. 10 after battling dementia for several years. He was 69.

Renowned for his commitment to collegiality, social justice and a pastoral approach to leadership, Archbishop Borders led the archdiocese from 1974 to 1989, when he retired.

As pallbearers slowly guided Monsignor F. Dennis Tinder’s casket out of Immaculate Conception Church in Towson following his Dec. 12 funeral Mass, approximately 120 priests and deacons united their voices in a final tribute to their brother clergyman. A solemn church bell tolled every few seconds while the white-robed men chanted “Salve Regina” in Latin […]

Christopher J. Coffland, a Baltimore native, was killed by a roadside bomb Nov. 13 in the Wardak province of Afghanistan. The Army reservist, who had joined the military a month before he reached the enlistment age limit of 42, had been in Afghanistan for two weeks working as an intelligence specialist.

St. Louis in Clarksville is mourning the loss of John Alexander Evans, a 19-year-old parishioner who died Nov. 7 after completing a 10-mile road march at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.

Sulpician Father Joseph C. Martin, a leader in the addiction treatment field who cofounded the Father Martin’s Ashley treatment center, died March 9. He was 84.

Father Robert “Rocky” Kearns, a pioneering Josephite priest, pastor and superior general who was active in the social justice movement, died in an Alabama hospital Dec. 6 from complications of cancer. He was 72.

Father Kevin W. Brooksbank, a 35-year-old associate pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Baynesville, died May 25 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson after battling a viral infection and kidney failure.

Father Wayne G. Funk, the longtime pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Frederick who was known for his encouraging, pastoral presence, died Feb. 16 at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The 70-year-old priest had battled cancer for nearly five years.