The country's bishops, along with the rest of Catholic Church and the citizenry of Venezuela, have lived in the unfolding chaos that has driven at least 3 million out of the country.

He first went to the local hospital and then to the reunification center where he stayed from 1 p.m. Aug. 3 until about 5:30 p.m. the next day. Some slept during the night in the school building, but mostly they just waited, anxious to hear about friends or family members.

Over the course of the mid-to-late 20th century, notions of social justice went very, very wrong.

The near-term hardship “won’t hit for a week or two,” Bishop Kopacz said. But “as time goes on this month, there’s going to be some real crises.”

“At a time when we are facing the ‘highest levels of displacement on record,’ according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, we urge you to increase the refugee resettlement cap and to admit as many refugees as possible within that cap," the letter reads.

Venezuelan migrants, fleeing violence and political instability at home, had been trickling into the island nation for several years. That trickle became a wave in 2018 as inflation soared and food shortages became acute.