Pope Francis holds the weekly general audience at the Vatican.JPG REUTERS/Remo Casilli

Pope Francis compared anti-gay comments made by politicians to speeches made by Adolf Hitler.

He made the comment while speaking to an international penal law association on Friday, the Associated Press reported.

He said: „These are actions that are typical of Nazism, that with its persecution of Jews, gypsies, people with homosexual orientation, represent an excellent model of the throwaway culture and culture of hatred.“

Francis did not name any specific politicians in his speech.

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Pope Francis compared anti-gay comments made by politicians to speeches made by Adolf Hitler in a speech he made on Friday in which he denounced homophobia.

Francis was speaking to an international penal law association when he made the comment, the Associated Press reported.

He said that the way some political figures speak about the LGBTQ community reminds him of the speeches Hitler made about Jewish people in the 1930s.

„These are actions that are typical of Nazism, that with its persecution of Jews, gypsies, people with homosexual orientation, represent an excellent model of the throwaway culture and culture of hatred,“ Francis said.

Francis did not name any specific politicians in his speech.

In the speech, Francis also denounced police brutality, the world’s failure to punish environmental crimes, and the arbitrary use of preventative detention.

In a speech made on Wednesday during his weekly Papal audience, Francis condemned anti-Semitism, describing the persecution of Jews as „neither human or Christian,“ according to CBS News.

„The Jews are our brothers and sisters and should not be persecuted, understand?“ he said.