“Infrastructure has been severely damaged, as have institutions and businesses,” Archbishop Pinder said. Though the official death count was 30 on Sept. 6, “we are assured the death toll is bound to increase.”

“There is no hope, no future here.”

The irony of finding himself at a mass shooting event on his home soil after his military career had ended is not lost on Father Hendrickson. “I left the service in 2012, and I thought I was done with that kind of stuff; I thought that was the end of that.”

“The emphasis of the activists on the ground,” Rolando López said, “is that the governor resigning is not the last step. This really is about a more general critique of the economy of Puerto Rico.”

After a nearly two-decade lapse in federal executions, the move, according to a Department of Justice statement to the press, brings “justice to victims of the most horrific crimes.”

“It is contrary to American and Christian values to attempt to prevent people from migrating here when they are fleeing to save their lives and to find safety for their families,” Cardinal DiNardo said.

The raids target individuals whose immigration cases were fast-tracked by judges in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and other major U.S. cities with significant immigrant populations.

Almost a dozen states have made significant changes to abortion law this year in anticipation of a possible overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

While the sudden rush of limiting legislation has cheered many advocates within the prolife community, some worry that the rush to ban or restrict abortion could backfire.

“Deploying 6,000 National Guard troops on the southern border is not a root solution that addresses the true causes of the migration phenomenon,” Mexico's bishops wrote. “The fight against poverty and inequality in Mexico and Central America seems to be replaced by fear of the other, our brother.”