Religious leaders worldwide, across faiths who died in 2020

NEW YORK (AP) — The Catholic priest who for decades had been one of the Vatican’s top experts on the Latin language died on Christmas Day at a nursing home in Milwaukee. A United Methodist Church bishop in the West African nation of Sierra Leone died in a traffic accident in August as he engaged in efforts to resolve the denomination’s conflicts over inclusion of LGBTQ people. Back in March, a 49-year-old priest in Brooklyn became the first Catholic cleric in the United States to die from the coronavirus. They were among many religious leaders — some admired worldwide, others beloved only locally — who died in 2020.