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 pope's appeal came after what authorities have called the worst shipwreck on the Mediterranean this year.

The murder of 35-year-old officer Mario Cerciello Rega in Rome's Prati district July 26 and the subsequent arrest of two young American men sent shockwaves around the country.

For U.S. charities affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, the past year has tested the resilience of their fundraisers and the loyalty of their donors in unprecedented fashion.

As the Archdiocese of St. Louis released a list of names of archdiocesan clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor July 26, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson acknowledged that seeing the names "will be painful" and publishing them "will not change the past."

Some religious groups and religious liberty groups have applauded the commission including the Center for Family and Human Rights, a Catholic think tank.