Credit: udra11/Shutterstock
Dec 31, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The past year has seen several notable Catholics pass away — from public officials to the vicar of Christ himself.
Here’s a rundown of some prominent Catholics around the world who left us in 2025:
Pope Francis (Dec. 17, 1936 — April 21, 2025)
The Holy Father, Pope Francis, passed away at 7:35 a.m. on Easter Monday, April 21, at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. The 88-year-old pontiff led the Catholic Church for a little more than 12 years.
The first Latin American pope in history as well as the first Jesuit pope, Francis led the Church through significant canonical and catechetical reforms, urging the faithful to reach out and minister to those on the margins of society while preaching the mercy of God.
Upon his death he left the legacy of what Cardinal Kevin Farrell said was a life “dedicated to the service of God and his Church,” one that urged the faithful to “live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalized.”
Pope Francis was succeeded in the chair of St. Peter by Pope Leo XIV on May 8.
Mabel Landry Staton (Nov. 20, 1932 — Feb. 20, 2025)
Mabel Landry Staton, a trailblazing athlete who briefly set an Olympic record at the 1952 Summer Olympics, died on Feb. 20 at age 92.
Representing the United States at the Olympic games in Helsinki in 1952, Staton — known as “Dolly” after a nickname from her father — set a record in the long jump category at 19 feet 3.25 inches. Though the record only lasted for several minutes before New Zealand athlete Yvette Williams bested it, Staton would go on to win medals in the 1955 Pan American Games.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Staton served as a Eucharistic minister at St. Thomas More Church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, as well as on the board of the Black Catholic Ministry of the Diocese of Camden.
According to the Inquirer, Staton “could still outsprint some of the local high school boys in her 70s.”
Alasdair MacIntyre (Jan. 12, 1929 — May 21, 2025)
Alasdair MacIntyre, a towering figure in moral philosophy and a Catholic convert credited with reviving the discipline of virtue ethics, died on May 21 at age 96.
His seminal 1981 work “After Virtue” reshaped contemporary moral and political philosophy, emphasizing virtue over utilitarian or deontological frameworks.
Known by many as “the most important” modern Catholic philosopher, MacIntyre’s intellectual and spiritual journey spanned atheism, Marxism, Anglicanism, and ultimately Roman Catholicism.
James Hitchcock (Feb. 13, 1938 — July 14, 2025)
James Hitchcock — a noted historian of the Catholic Church, popular author, and longtime college professor — died on July 14 at age 87.
Hitchcock was remembered by friends and colleagues as a man of prophetic insight who defended Church teaching and helped to make the Catholic intellectual tradition accessible for his students and readers.
Hitchcock taught history at Saint Louis University from the late 1960s until 2013. Some of the most popular of the dozen books he wrote include his one-volume “History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium,” published in 2012 by Ignatius Press.
Frank Caprio (Nov. 24, 1936 — Aug. 20, 2025)
Frank Caprio, who served as a Providence, Rhode Island, municipal court judge for nearly 40 years and came to be known as “America’s nicest judge,” passed away on Aug. 20 from pancreatic cancer.
Caprio gained worldwide fame for a lenient judicial style that blended justice, extreme empathy, and mercy when his courtroom was televised in a program called “Caught in Providence.”
The program began in 1999 and went viral in 2017, achieving hundreds of millions of views since then. The show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 2021 and has a YouTube channel with nearly 3 million subscribers.
Caprio told EWTN News in February that he always kept in mind something his father, a hardworking Italian immigrant with a fifth-grade education, had impressed upon him: “What might seem like a small fine to some was something that many couldn’t afford.”
“Your case is dismissed” became Caprio’s signature phrase.
Thomas A. Nelson (March 1, 1937 — Aug. 16, 2025)
Thomas A. Nelson, the founder of TAN Books — a Catholic publishing house known for its books promoting traditional Catholicism in the post-Vatican II era — died Aug. 16 at age 88.
Nelson, who had previously worked as a teacher, founded TAN Books and Publishers Inc. in Rockford, Illinois, in 1967 and an accompanying printing plant in 1978. In addition to being Nelson’s initials, TAN is an acronym for the Latin phrase “Tuum Adoramus Nomen” (“Let Us Adore Thy Name”).
Under Nelson’s ownership, TAN became known for publishing orthodox Catholic books, including reprints of classic Catholic works on theology, Scripture, traditional devotions, the Traditional Latin Mass, and the lives of the saints as well as new titles on these subjects by contemporary authors.
Katharine, Duchess of Kent (Feb. 22, 1933 — Sept. 4, 2025)
The Duchess of Kent, who became the first senior British royal to be received into the Catholic Church since the 17th century, died on Sept. 4 at the age of 92.
Renowned for her natural charm, compassion for the sick and downtrodden, and commitment to serving others, the duchess was a much-loved and hardworking British royal whose popularity was enhanced by her own personal suffering and self-effacing nature.
She was received into the Church in January 1994 by Cardinal Basil Hume. Up until then, no senior royal had publicly been received into the Church since 1685.
Katharine spoke favorably of the Church’s moral precepts. “I do love guidelines and the Catholic Church offers you guidelines,” she once told the BBC. “I have always wanted that in my life. I like to know what’s expected of me.”
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt (Aug. 21, 1919 — Oct. 9, 2025)
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the beloved Catholic nun who became known across the country at the age of 98 as the chaplain of the Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball team, died Oct. 9 at the age of 106.
Sister Jean was born Dolores Bertha Schmidt on Aug. 21, 1919, to Joseph and Bertha Schmidt. She was raised in a devout Catholic home in San Francisco’s Castro District.
In 1937, she joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and took the name Sister Jean Dolores. In 1991, she joined the staff at Loyola Chicago and three years later became part of the basketball team, first as an academic adviser before transitioning to chaplain.
Sister Jean led the team in prayer before each game — praying for her players to be safe, for the referees to be fair, and for God’s assistance during the game.
She also admitted to praying for the opposing team, though “not as hard.”
Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA (Feb. 25, 1931 — Nov. 10, 2025)
Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA, died on Nov. 10 at age 94 after roughly three-quarters of a century of religious life.
Sister Mary Michael was the last of the original five nuns who, along with EWTN foundress Mother Angelica, began the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama.
Born Evelyn Shinosky on Feb. 25, 1931, to Joseph and Helen Shinosky, she entered Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 1951, and received the habit and her new name the following May.
Her passing marked the end of an era at EWTN and at the monastery — one that saw both the launch of the global Catholic network and the expansion of the religious community to include the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery.
Paul Badde (March 10, 1948 — Nov. 10, 2025)
Paul Badde, author of many well-known books such as “Benedict Up Close,” “The Face of God,” and “The True Icon,” died on Nov. 10 at the age of 77 after a long illness. Badde was also a veteran contributor to EWTN and CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
Born in Schaag, Germany — a small village on the Lower Rhine — he studied philosophy and sociology in Freiburg as well as art history, history, and political science in Frankfurt. Before embarking on a journalistic career, Badde worked as a teacher for several years.
A founding editor of Vatican Magazine, Paul and his wife, Ellen, had five children.
Sister JoAnn Persch (June 27, 1934 — Nov. 14, 2025)
Longtime immigrant rights advocate Sister JoAnn Persch died on Nov. 14 at age 91.
Two weeks before her death, Persch attempted to bring Communion to detainees at the Broadview, Illinois, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility where for decades the Sisters of Mercy ministered to migrants and refugees. Officials denied her entry.
Persch and Sister Pat Murphy were founding members of the Su Casa Catholic Worker House in Chicago, serving refugees from Central America who were survivors of war, torture, and political persecution.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Read More
![Should Catholics use AI to re-create deceased loved ones? Experts weigh in #Catholic
A child holds a phone with the Replika app open and an image of an AI companion. Apps that promise to help recreate digital versions of deceased family members using AI pose a “spiritual danger” to Catholics and others who may use the technology in place of healthy grief, experts say. / Credit: Generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system on Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Dec 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Apps that promise to help re-create digital versions of deceased family members using AI pose a “spiritual danger” to Catholics and others who may use the technology in place of healthy grief, experts say.The AI company 2wai ignited a controversy on social media in November after it revealed its eponymous app, which will allow users to fabricate digital versions of their loved ones using video and audio footage.App co-founder Calum Worthy said in a viral X post that the tech could permit “loved ones we’ve lost [to] be part of our future.” The accompanying video shows a family continuously interacting with the digital projection of a deceased mother and grandmother even years after she died.What if the loved ones we've lost could be part of our future? pic.twitter.com/oFBGekVo1R— Calum Worthy (@CalumWorthy) November 11, 2025 The reveal of the app brought praise from some tech commentators, though there was also considerable negative reaction. Many critics denounced it as “vile,” “demonic,” and “terrifying,” with others predicting that the app would be used to ghoulish ends such as using dead relatives to promote internet advertisements. Tech ‘could disrupt the grieving process’2wai did not respond to requests for comment on the controversy, though company CEO Mason Geyser told the Independent that the ad was deliberately meant to be “controversial” in order to “spark this kind of online debate.” Geyser himself said he views the app as a tool to be used with his children to help preserve the memories of earlier generations rather than as a means to having a relationship with an AI avatar. “I see it … as a way to just kind of pass on some of those really good memories that I had with my grandparents,” he said. Whether or not such an app is compatible with the Catholic understanding of death — and of more diffuse, esoteric topics like grief — is unclear. Father Michael Baggot, LC, an associate professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, acknowledged that AI avatars “could potentially remind us of certain aspects of our loved ones and help us learn from their examples.”But such digital replicas “cannot capture the full richness of the embodied human being,” he said, and they risk “distorting the dead’s legacy” by fabricating conversations and interactions beyond the dead’s control. Catholic leaders have regularly remarked on both the heavy burden of grief and its redemptive power. Pope Francis in 2020 acknowledged that grief is ”a bitter path,” but it can “serve to open our eyes to life and the sacred and irreplaceable value of each person,” while helping one realize “how short time is.”In October, meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV told a grieving father that those mourning the death of a loved one must “remain connected to the Lord, going through the greatest pain with the help of his grace.” The Resurrection, he said, “knows no discouragement or pain that imprisons us in the extreme difficulty of not finding meaning in our existence.”Brett Robinson, the associate director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, warned that there is “spiritual danger” in technology that outwardly appears to bring loved ones back from the dead. Technology is not a neutral product, he said, but one that “has a profound ability to shape our perception of reality, regardless of the content being displayed.”“In the case of re-presenting dead loved ones we meet one such case where prior conceptions about identity, vitality, and presence are being reshaped along technological lines,” he said. “If someone who no longer exists in human form, body and soul, can be ‘resurrected’ from an archive of the digital traces of their life, who or what are we actually engaging with?” he said. Robinson argued that present modes of technology have echoes of earlier centuries “when the cosmos was filled with presence — the presence of God, of angels, of demons, and of magic.” The problem at hand, he said, is that the “new magic” of modern technology “is divorced from the hierarchical, ordered cosmos of creation and the spiritual realm.”Donna MacLeod has worked in grief ministry for decades. She first became involved in Catholic grief counseling after the death of her youngest daughter in 1988. The funeral ministry evolved into Seasons of Hope, a grief support program for Catholics that “focuses on the spiritual side of grieving the death of a loved one.”MacLeod said the program is one of “hospitality and spirituality” that arises in an intensive community of individuals suffering from grief. “It builds parish communities,” she said. “People discover they’re not alone. That’s a big deal to grieving people — a lot of people feel very alone in their loss.” “And society expects everybody to move on,” she continued. “But grief has its own timetable. Those who are grieving start to understand that the Lord is with them and that he really cares about them. There’s hope and healing at the end of it.” “It’s doing what Christ asks us to do — walking with each other in hard times,” she said. Regarding the AI avatar technology, MacLeod acknowledged that those who have lost a loved one make it a “very high priority” to “seek connection” with the deceased. “People will say, ‘I’m not taking my loved one’s voice off of my answering machine,’” she said. “Or we have people taking out videos of family gatherings so they can see their loved ones again.”“Everyone seeks to still be connected with their loved ones,” she said. “It’s related to our Catholic faith and the communion of saints — people feel this spiritual connection with their loved ones.”MacLeod described herself as “on the fence” about how people could be affected by AI avatar apps. There could be “emotional and psychological risks interacting with AI versions of loved ones,” she admitted, though she said that many users “might look at it, but not get hung up on it,” unless they have underlying mental health issues. But “where the difficulty arises is that some people get stuck in the denial stage,” she said. Those suffering from grief can get desperate in such circumstances, she said, and sometimes resort to means such as mediums or psychics, which MacLeod pointed out the Church explicitly forbids. Whether or not AI avatars fall under that forbidden category is unclear. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expressly outlaws any efforts at “conjuring up the dead.” The use of mediums or clairvoyants “all conceal[s] a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings,” the Church says. Baggot said apps like 2wai’s “assemble data about the deceased without preserving the person.” He further argued that AI avatars “could also disrupt the grieving process by sending ambiguous signals about the survival of the departed person.”Robinson, meanwhile, acknowledged that it is “good to want to connect to deceased loved ones,” which he pointed out we do “liturgically through prayer and memorials that honor those souls that are dear to us.” He warned, however, against “technocratic creators of complex computational machines that are becoming indistinguishable from magic.”Such technology, he said, alters “the spiritual order” in ways “that are disordered and disembodied from the ritual forms that sustain religion and our belief that our eternal destiny rests with God in heaven and not in a database.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/should-catholics-use-ai-to-re-create-deceased-loved-ones-experts-weigh-in-catholic-a-child-holds-a-phone-with-the-replika-app-open-and-an-image-of-an-ai-companion-apps-that-promise-to-help-recr.webp)
![CNA explains: How does ‘Mass dispensation’ work, and when is it used? #Catholic
null / Credit: FotoDax/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Dec 26, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Amid heavy immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, several bishops in the U.S. have recently issued broad dispensations to Catholics in their dioceses, allowing them to refrain from attending Mass on Sundays if they fear arrest or deportation from federal officials.Bishops in North Carolina, California, and elsewhere have issued such dispensations, stating that those with legitimate concerns of being detained by immigration agents are free from the usual Sunday obligation.The Church’s canon law dictates that Sunday is considered the “primordial holy day of obligation,” one on which all Catholics are “obliged to participate in the Mass.” Several other holy days of obligation exist throughout the liturgical year, though Sunday (or the Saturday evening prior) is always considered obligatory for Mass attendance.The numerous dispensations issued recently in dioceses around the country have underscored, however, that bishops have some discretion in allowing Catholics to stay home from Mass for legitimate reasons.Dispensation must be ‘just,’ ‘reasonable’David Long, an assistant professor in the school of canon law at The Catholic University of America as well as the director of the school’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, told CNA that bishops have the authority to dispense the faithful in their diocese with, as the Code of Canon Law puts it, a “just and reasonable cause.”“This generally applies when a holy day of obligation falls on a Saturday or Monday, during severe weather events (snowstorms, hurricanes, floods, etc.), when there is no reasonable access to Mass, or during public emergencies such as pandemics or plagues,” he said. Once such circumstances end, he noted, the dispensation itself would cease.By virtue of their office, diocesan administrators, vicars general, and episcopal vicars also have the power to issue dispensations, Long said.Priests, however, normally do not have that authority “unless expressly granted by a higher authority, such as their diocesan bishop,” he said.Canon law, he said, dictates that a dispensation can only be granted when a bishop “judges that it contributes to [the] spiritual good” of his flock, for a just cause, and “after taking into account the circumstances of the case and the gravity of the law from which dispensation is given.”The lay faithful themselves can determine, in some cases, when they can refrain from going to Mass, though Long stressed that such instances do not constitute “dispensation,” as the laity “does not have the power to dispense at any time” that authority being tied to “executive power in the Church” via ordination.Canon law dictates, however, that Catholics are not bound to attend Mass when “participation in the Eucharistic celebration becomes impossible.”Long said such scenarios include “when [the faithful] are sick, contagious, or housebound, when they are the primary caregiver for someone else and cannot arrange coverage for that person, when traveling to Mass is dangerous, when there is no realistic access to Mass, or for some other grave cause.”“This is not a dispensation,” he said, “but instead is a legal recognition of moral and physical impossibility at times.”The recent immigration-related controversy isn’t the only large-scale dispensation in recent memory. Virtually every Catholic in the world was dispensed from Mass in the earliest days of the COVID-19 crisis, when government authorities sharply limited public gatherings, including religious gatherings, all over the world.In 2024, on the other hand, the Vatican said that Catholics in the United States must still attend Mass on holy days of obligation even when they are transferred to Mondays or Saturdays, correcting a long-standing practice in the U.S. Church and ending a dispensation with which many Catholics were familiar.‘The most incredible privilege we could possibly imagine’Though the obligation to attend Mass is a major aspect of Church canon law, Father Daniel Brandenburg, LC, cautioned against interpreting it uncharitably.“This ‘obligation’ is sort of like the obligation of eating,” he said. “If you don’t eat, you’ll die. Similarly, the Church simply recognizes that if we don’t nourish our soul, it withers away and dies. The bare minimum to survive is Mass once a week on Sundays.”“Most people find the ‘obligation’ of eating to be quite pleasurable,” he continued, “and I think anyone with a modicum of spiritual awareness finds deep joy in attending Mass and receiving the Creator of the universe into their soul. At least I do.”Like Long, Brandenburg stressed that the lay faithful lack the authority to “dispense” themselves from Mass. Instead, they are directed to follow their consciences when determining if they are incapable of attending Mass, particularly by applying the principle of moral theology “ad impossibilia, nemo tenetur” “(no one is obliged to do what is impossible”).Being too sick, facing dangerous inclement weather, or lacking the ability to transport themselves are among the reasons the faithful might determine they are unable to attend Mass, he said.“Here, beware the lax conscience which gives easy excuses,” Brandenburg warned, “and remember that the saints became holy not through excuses, but through heroic love.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cna-explains-how-does-mass-dispensation-work-and-when-is-it-used-catholic-null-credit-fotodax-shutterstockcna-staff-dec-26-2025-0600-am-cna-amid-heavy-immigratio.webp)
