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“Pope Francis reminded us when he visited a mosque in Bangui, Central African Republic that ‘Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters. We must therefore consider ourselves and conduct ourselves as such.'”

“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.

“We need funding, we are small-scale farmers (and) we don’t have much resources. How do we adapt,” she asked, from inside an antiquated and ornate room belonging to a Paris syndicate. She sat surrounded by other, mostly African women farmers and their advocates who, like Chidararume, had traveled thousands of miles to France in an attempt to sway U.N. negotiators.

“The Argentine Catholic Church will get along much better with Macri than with the Kirchners,” said Fernando Farias, a journalist and analyst with Argentine public radio in Buenos Aires. “I think that the Catholic Church, with a friendlier government in office, is going to try to advance conservative policies.”

Group believes Middle East Christians should be included in any listing of genocide victims based on their treatment by the Islamic State.