The good news is that “trends in women’s empowerment are heading in the right direction globally. Some 59 countries recorded significant progress since the first edition while only one country (Yemen) experienced major deterioration.”

As tensions rise again with the approach of a Nov. 12 deadline for the creation of a unity government, Bishop Kussala has a message for the conflict-weary people of South Sudan. “The church is here to stay,” he said. “We serve the people; we don’t run away.”

Noting that Mother Cabrini was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Catholic Church, Gov. Cuomo added, in perhaps a dig at political rival New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, “She is certainly deserving of a statue.”

Bashar Warda, C.Ss.R., the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil in Iraqi-Kurdistan, urged all parties in the new conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish and allied militias of the Syrian Democratic Forces “to remember at all times their obligations to protect innocent civilians.”

The U.S.C.C.B. and Jesuit leaders have renewed their criticism of the Trump administration's treatment of migrants.

The ecological restoration work here is locked in a race against deforestation as hard-pressed Malagasy turn to the forests to make charcoal, build homes or clear the forest for subsistence food production.

“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.”