Sidney Poitier had 55 film and television credits dating back to 1947, although his last appearance was 2001 TV movie, “The Last Brickmaker in America.” Many of these films highlighted civil rights issues the United States was wrestling with at the time.

During her 16 years in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Sister Margaret worked at what is now University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson; Shrine of the Little Flower School in Baltimore and The Catholic High School of Baltimore.

Sister Mary Ann ministered mostly in Pennsylvania and Delaware, but also spent eight years in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, serving in education at St. Elizabeth School and the Shrine of the Little Flower School in Baltimore.

Sister Mary William entered the IHM congregation in 1964, making her final profession in 1972. She served as a teacher at St. Agnes School in Catonsville from 1969 to 1970.

2021 saw the passing of some of the nation’s most important leaders, thinkers, writers and freedom fighters of the modern era.

Father Brian Rafferty, the founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City who later shepherded Our Lady of the Chesapeake in Lake Shore for 25 years, died on Christmas Eve after an extended illness. He was 84.

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s compassion and sense of humor, as well as his commitment to justice and processes of peace, were among the many reasons he was an icon, said Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg.

Thomas J. Quigley, who worked for 45 years in service to the U.S. bishops, mostly in the realm of foreign policy, died Dec. 11 at age 91.

A funeral Mass was offered Nov. 23 at St. Peter Claver in West Baltimore for Dr. Beverly A. Carroll, a social justice advocate who spent her life raising her voice for African American Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the United States and the world.

A funeral Mass for Redemptorist Father Ronald E. Bonneau was offered Nov. 18 at St. John Neumann in Annapolis.