Pope Backs Military Force to Protect Iraq Minorities
In USA Today, Alan Gomez reports, “Pope Francis on Monday endorsed military action to stop Islamist militants from attacking religious minorities in Iraq.” In saying that “it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor,” the pope made “the most pronounced endorsement of the use of force of any pope … in the last 100 years,” according to James Bretzke, a priest and professor at Boston College. Francis was still nuanced in his statement: “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.”