Workers have completed a phase of conservation work on historic murals by the late artist Maxo Vanka at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church near Pittsburgh.

The wide empty spaces in pews between parishioners at a Sunday service at Zion Baptist Church in South Carolina’s capital highlight a post-pandemic reality common among many Black Protestant churches across the nation.

Indigenous Canadians are voicing a range of skepticism, wariness and hope as Pope Francis prepares to arrive in their country next week.

Across the United States, campus ministries of different denominations are working to bring comfort to college students who have been plunged deeper into feelings of crisis and helplessness by the war in Ukraine.

In most ways, Jalue Dorje is a typical American teen — he grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, loving football, Pokémon and rap music.

Brothers, Bryan, left, and Bradford Manning, laugh as they tell the origin story of their clothing company, Two Blind Brothers, in their New York City loft on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020. That’s the question posed by two New York brothers who’ve lost much of their vision to a rare degenerative eye disorder and have dedicated their lives — and livelihoods — to raising money for a cure. Bradford Manning, 35, and his 30-year-old brother, Bryan, are the founders of the clothing brand Two Blind Brothers. With advice from friends in the fashion industry, two blind brothers became Two Blind Brothers. Brad was diagnosed at 7 after their mother, a nurse, found a doctor who determined that Stargardt disease was the cause of his declining vision.

Nationwide, more than 140 Catholic schools will not reopen in the fall. Already this year, financial and enrollment problems aggravated by the pandemic have forced the permanent closure of more than 140 Catholic schools nationwide, according to officials who oversee Catholic education in the country. Three of the nations highest-ranking Catholic leaders, in a recent joint appeal, said Catholic schools are presently facing their greatest financial crisis and warned that hundreds more closures are likely without federal support. For Catholic schools that are reopening, there is no national directive as to how they should handle the question of in-person classes. And in Evansville, Indiana, Catholic schools reopened Aug. 5 with a full program of in-person instruction.

(AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)NEW YORK – The paths of two New York City churches diverged this week — one reopened and one stayed closed. Caution also is the watchword at Saint Peter’s, which serves churchgoers from across the city, but with a different result. Under city guidelines, Saint Peter’s could have reopened this week for 125 people at a time, or 25% of capacity. Parish secretary Alejandra Mendez, for example, lost her father and brother, both church members, as well as her aunt. On Monday she welcomed people back to Saint Bartholomew's with a broad smile under her mask — and squirts of sanitizer on their hands.

Nursing home workers cheer as Corey Cappelloni completes his seventh ultramarathon in seven days in Scranton, Pa., Friday, June 19, 2020. Cappelloni ran roughly 218 miles from Washington, D.C., to Scranton to visit his 98-year-old grandmother and raise awareness for older adults in isolation amid the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)SCRANTON, Pa. Endurance athlete Corey Cappelloni once ran six days through the Sahara Desert in whats considered the most grueling foot race on Earth. Dozens of workers at the Allied Services Skilled Nursing & Rehab Center applauded as he crossed the finish line. She had some very rough days, Cappelloni said that day in a video he posted online.

Guidance secretary Marge Berckmiller, left, and Sister Bridget Reilly, director of guidance, prepare student transcripts to send to other schools after the closure of Quigley Catholic High School in Baden, Pa., Monday, June 8, 2020. This year’s closures will reduce the number of Catholic K-12 schools in the United States to about 6,000, down from more than 11,000 in 1970, according to the Catholic education association. “The loss of Catholic schools is a loss to America,” said Mary Pat Donoghue, executive director of the Catholic Education office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Donoghue said many families have recently lost jobs and feel they can no longer pay tuitions averaging nearly $5,000 for elementary schools and more than $11,000 for high schools. They offered to buy the elementary school building and the high school sports fields and operate a private school independently of the diocese, but that was rejected.