From a perch on the op-ed page of The Washington Post from 1969 to 1997, Colman McCarthy became what the Washingtonian Magazine called the "liberal conscience" of the paper.
Martin Marty, an eminent church historian, prolific chronicler and interpreter of religion and its role in public life, died at the age of 97 on Tuesday, Feb. 25 in a Minneapolis care facility where he spent his final years.
"His lifelong work on behalf of peace among nations will continue to serve as an inspiration for a world in need of peacemakers," Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement.
Cardinal Miguel Ayuso Guixot, a leading Vatican expert on Islam, died on Monday (Nov. 25) at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, according to official Catholic Church news outlets. The cardinal was credited for rekindling the relationship between Sunni Islam and the Catholic Church. He was 72.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told OSV News that the late Father Gustavo Gutiérrez's theological work will leave a lasting contribution to the Catholic Church in seeing "signs and the peculiarities of the time" and to view them through "the light of the Gospel" that leads not only to change in pastoral practice but "to change society, the conditions of life and to make it better according to (everyone's) dignity."
James Earl Jones, a distinguished actor known for his resonant voice and a Black Catholic, died Sept. 9 in Dutchess County, New York, at age 93. Jones' passing coincided with the feast of St. Peter Claver, a patron saint of Black Catholics.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the Detroit prelate who for many American Catholics defined faith-based social justice activism in the post-Vatican II church, died April 4. He was 94.
