Profess

verb

1. To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.)
2. To declare oneself (to be something).
3. To declare; to assert, affirm.
4. To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity.
5. To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.).