While Catholics generally are prone to religious switching, Black Catholics have the highest rates. Only 54 percent of U.S. Black Catholics who were raised in the faith remain so as adults.

Protestants account for most of the decline — down 4 percentage points from five years ago and 10 percentage points since a decade ago. Catholics held relatively steady at 21 percent.

Surrounded by other churches with huge congregations, Mother Teresa Catholic Church in Cary, N.C., remains intentionally small to more directly minister to its parishioners.

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has written a letter to Pope Francis conveying its “distress” at comments he made suggesting Jewish law, as written in the Torah, is obsolete.

Evyatar Marienberg, a historian of religion at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, has written a book about Sting’s Catholic imagination and how it fueled his creativity.

“My neighborhood, my family and I have a right to live without a nuclear gun on hair-trigger alert held perpetually to our heads,” Colville told the judge.

A Catholic social justice activist who was knocked to the ground by police during a protest over racism last year has sued the city of Buffalo, its mayor, the police commissioner and several police officers.

If all the nominees the president-elect has chosen are confirmed, the Cabinet will have diverse religious backgrounds. The majority are Catholic, with five Jews, two Black Baptists and two Hindus.

The 117th session of Congress got off to a testy start on Sunday, including an opening prayer from an ordained member whose pairing of “A-woman” with the traditional “Amen” raised both hackles and questions about the meaning of the word.

Martha Hennessy, a granddaughter of Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker movement, was sentenced Friday (Nov. 13) to 10 months in prison for breaking into Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia.