"There is absolutely no reason to stop or pause the resettlement of Syrian refugees. The fear around this is wrong and as people of faith, we must demand more from our public officials," said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington.

"Time and time again you guys have failed to show up with real solutions," said Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 15-year-old Aztec Indian, environmental activist and hip-hop artist from Boulder, Colorado. "It's up to the people to change the world. Our voices united will make more of a difference than world leaders ever have and ever will."

"The latest progress report confirms that the Holy See has established a functional, sustainable and effective system, aiming at preventing and fighting financial crimes," said Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, under-secretary for relations with states and head of the Vatican delegation to the Moneyval plenary.

Two aspects of U.S. religious life today, according to the report, have not changed: the increasing average age of women religious and their declining numbers. "Only 9 percent of religious sisters are younger than 60; more than two-thirds of women and men vowed religious are older than 65," the report said.

With the government of President Bashar Assad controlling perhaps one-quarter of Syria but two-thirds of the population, and Kurdish separatists controlling two northern slivers of the country, most of Syria's eastern half is controlled by Islamic State, with collections of so-called "moderate" rebels -- i.e., anyone not named Islamic State that wants Assad gone -- hunkered down in the rest. There is little incentive for Syrians to stay in their homeland.

"We want human rights, indigenous rights, food security and gender equality in Article 2" of the accord's text, said Bernd Nilles, head of CIDSE, an alliance of Catholic development agencies present at the conference site in Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris.