The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, at Georgetown University, reports that in the United States between 1965 and 2012, the number of Roman Catholic diocesan priests declined from 35,925 to 26,661, while the Catholic population increased from 45.6 million to 66.3 million.

See the results of an August 2011 survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors by LifeWay Research that details the rewards of their work but also the challenges.

An infographic, drawn from H.B. London Jr.’s book Pastors at Greater Risk, illustrates some of the data on clergy burnout.

The website PastorBurnout.com posts statistics on the problem of clergy burnout.

Read a February 11, 2013 about the future and significance of the Pope’s Twitter account in the wake of his resignation.

Read a January 24, 2013 article from CNET about Pope Benedict XVI’s influence on social media in the religious sphere.

Read a Dec. 11, 2012 from The Washington Post about the Pope’s use of social media and it’s greater significance to the social media world.

Read an Aug. 18, 2009, Religion News Service story about the religious element to the health care debate.

The Public Influences of African-American Churches Project conducted focus groups and surveyed black congregations and church leaders over three years to learn about congregational involvement in elections and setting public policy since the civil rights era. Despite the existence of 8,000 black elected officials and dozens of black civic and lobbying organizations, the survey found that black churches […]