A process wherein a regenerated, spent sulfided vanadium-containing Group VIII metal, Group VI-B metal, or Group VI-B/Group VIII metals containing catalyst is contacted with a stream of an oxygen-containing gas and the coke burned therefrom to regenerate the catalyst. The regenerated catalyst as such, or after reduction of the catalytic metals by contact with hydrogen, can be used as an adsorbent to remove essentially all of the sulfur from a naphtha feed which contains as much as 50 weight ppm sulfur, and greater.