Photo by Committee for the 2014 Papal Visit to Korea via Getty Images.

Aboard the Papel Plane earlier today, Pope Francis told reporters that he hopes to visit D.C. as part of a three-city tour of the U.S. in September of next year.

On his way back from a trip to South Korea, Francis told reporters that he endorses “the use of force to stop Islamic militants from attacking religious minorities in Iraq, but said the international community—not just one country—should decide how to intervene,” The Associated Press reports. Additionally, Francis said that he’s working with his advisors to decide if he should take a trip to northern Iraq to support persecuted Christians.

The AP also reports that Francis told the press on the plane he “[hopes] to travel to the United States in September 2015 for a possible three-city tour: to attend a family rally in Philadelphia and to address Congress in Washington and the United Nations in New York.”

Among the other things Francis discussed with reporters today was the role of the U.S. in Iraq, specifically, whether 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.”

He addressed the question by saying he thinks it’s “licit” to “stop” aggressors in situations like the one in Iraq. “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.”

The last time a Pope visited D.C. was in 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI visited for three days in April to, among other things, meet with President George W. Bush and celebrate mass at Nationals Park.