Archbishop Silvano Tomasi — the Vatican’s top diplomat at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland — said that force may be needed in order to stop ISIS attacks on Christians and other Middle East minorities.

He said the jihadists were committing “genocide” and must be dealt with, whether through a political solution, or not.

While the central governing body of the Catholic Church has traditionally seen military as a problem, rather than an answer in the region, Tomasi’s statement come on the heels of Pope Francis speaking out against the beheadings of Egyptian Coptic Christians by the terror group on February 21.

The archbishop provided more detail in his interview to the website Crux.

“What’s needed is a co-ordinated and well-thought-out coalition to do everything possible to achieve a political settlement without violence.

“But if that’s not possible, then the use of force will be necessary.”

“We have to stop this kind of genocide. Otherwise we’ll be crying out in the future about why we didn’t so something, why we allowed such a terrible tragedy to happen.”

“Christians, Yazidis, Shias, Sunnis, Alawites, all are human beings whose rights deserve to be protected,” he said.

BBC