Pope Francis Endorses Use Of Force In Iraq, Says He Hopes To Travel To U.S. In 2015

Pope Francis touches his face during his meeting with journalists aboard the papal flight on the journey to Seoul, South Korea, while being informed by Father Federico Lombardi that Associated Press Video journalist Simone Camilli of Italy, died in Gaza, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. Six people - including an Associated Press video journalist - were killed Wednesday when leftover ordnance believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up in the Gaza Strip. Camilli and his Palestinian translator, Ali Shehda Abu Afash, were covering the aftermath of the war between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza when they were killed. The blast occurred as Gaza police engineers were trying to defuse unexploded ordnance fired by Israel. Four police engineers also were killed, police said. Three people, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa, were badly injured. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Just a week after denouncing the violence against religious minorities in Iraq, Pope Francis took an unconventional position of endorsing the use of force to stop Islamic militants. He said though, the international community – not just one country – should decide how to intervene.

In comments Monday to journalists returning from his trip to South Korea, the Pontiff also said he and his advisers are considering if a trip to northern Iraq to show solidarity with persecuted Christians is necessary. He said they are holding off on a decision for now.

In other comments to the press, Francis also confirmed he hoped to travel to the United States in September 2014 for a possible three-city tour: to a family rally in Philadelphia, to address Congress in Washington and the United Nations in New York. A subsequent stop in Mexico during that trip could be possible, but no decision has been made, he said.

On Iraq, Francis was asked if he approved of the unilateral U.S. airstrikes on militants of the Islamic State who have captured swaths of northern and western Iraq and northeastern Syria and have forced minority Christians and others to either convert to Islam or flee their homes.

"In these cases, where there is an unjust aggression, I can only say that it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor," Francis said. "I underscore the verb 'stop.' I'm not saying 'bomb' or 'make war,' just 'stop.' And the means that can be used to stop them must be evaluated."

But, he said, in history, such "excuses" to stop an unjust aggression have been used by world powers to justify a "war of conquest" in which an entire people have been taken over.

"One nation alone cannot judge how you stop this, how you stop an unjust aggressor," he said, apparently referring to the United States. "After World War II, the idea of the United Nations came about: It's there that you must discuss 'Is there an unjust aggression? It seems so. How should we stop it?' Just this. Nothing more."

His comments were significant because the Vatican has vehemently opposed any military intervention in recent years, with St. John Paul II actively trying to head off the Iraq war and Francis himself staging a global prayer and fast for peace when the U.S. was threatening airstrikes on Syria last year.

But the Vatican has been increasingly showing support for military intervention in Iraq, given that Christians are being directly targeted because of their faith and that Christian communities which have existed for 2,000 years have been emptied as a result of the extremists' onslaught.

The U.S. began launching airstrikes against Islamic State fighters on Aug. 8, allowing Kurdish forces to fend off an advance on their regional capital of Irbil and to help tens of thousands of religious minorities escape.

Church teaching allows for "just wars," when military force can be justified under certain circumstances. And in recent days, a few Vatican officials have edged increasingly toward acknowledging the Iraq situation fits the bill.

When the Vatican's ambassador to Iraq, Monsignor Giorgio Lingua, was asked about the U.S. airstrikes, he told Vatican Radio that it was unfortunate that the situation had gotten to this point "but it's good when you're able to at the very least remove weapons from these people who have no scruples."

The Vatican's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, went further, saying "Maybe military action is necessary at this moment."

Francis sent a personal envoy, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, to northern Iraq last week with an undisclosed amount of money to help people in flight and show the pope's solidarity with those forced to flee their homes.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.