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Pope Francis has told a group of Jewish leaders “first it was your turn and now it is our turn” in a discussion about the persecution and murder of Christians in the Middle East.

The leader of the Catholic faith drew a comparison between the Jewish Holocaust and ISIS’s current persecution of Christians in Syria and Iraq during a meeting with 40 Jewish leaders at the Vatican on Wednesday.

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“Pope Francis told us privately that he believes we are in World War Three,” said Ronald S. Lauder, the head of the World Jewish Congress.

“[Pope Francis] said ’first it was your turn and now it is our turn’.

“In other words, first Jews suffered savage attacks that were met with the world’s silence and now it is Christians who are being annihilated and the world is silent,” he said.

Pope Francis has previously encouraged efforts to stop ISIS, saying: “In cases like this, where there is an unjust aggression, then it is licit to halt the aggressor.”

The Daily Telegraph