Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, said he worries for families in which some members are U.S. citizens and others have a less permanent immigration status.

Bishop Nguyen was forced to flee his native country as a seminarian, spending 18 days at sea without food or water.

No part of the 220-year-old mission, part of the Franciscan Province of St. Barbara, was damaged, said Brother John Kiesler.

Most of the families are poor and come from desert communities where there is no heat, running water or electricity.

The funding is at peril in the proposed federal budget.

"Fixing illegal immigration does not require the demonization of the so-called 'illegals,'" said Archbishop Wenski.

Though the Catholic Church has responded to racism for many years, some leaders and church institutions have at times been part of the problem.

As the U.S. bishops were beginning their fall assembly in Baltimore, also marking their 100th anniversary as a conference, a couple of nonviolent protesters gathered nearby.

"We're at the beginning of this," said Gonzaga history teacher Ed Donnellan, who also is looking at the possibility of taking students to visit the remnants of the Jesuit slave plantations in Maryland.

At the 2017 gathering, organizers offered Catholic speakers that tackled racism, immigration, climate change, socioeconomic inequality, prison reform and other forms of social exclusion.