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.

George P. Smith II is a law professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. His specialty is bioethics and health law; he has taught internationally.

Leonard J. Nelson III is a professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University and an affiliated scholar with the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. He is a specialist in health care law and author of the 2009 book Diagnosis Critical: The Urgent Threats Confronting […]

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.

Catholic Medical Mission Board is a faith-based international health organization providing AIDS services in Africa under PEPFAR contract.

Faith communities in the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are heavily involved in relief efforts. BP donated $1 million to the Archdiocese of New Orleans for relief programs, as this May 28 Catholic News Service story recounts.

The Most Rev. Wilton Gregory is Roman Catholic archbishop of Atlanta. He served as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2001 to 2004. During his term the bishops developed new policies on clergy sexual abuse. He also has written about the death penalty, physician-assisted suicide and African-American liturgy.