"Reasonable discussion": Pentagon denies reports that official threatened Pope Leo

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Salon

Published April 9, 2026 4:50PM (EDT)


Relations between Pope Leo XIV and the Trump administration are under intense scrutiny this week following reports of a contentious January meeting between a Vatican envoy and Defense Department officials. The meeting came after the pope directly addressed the U.S. war in Iran during his State of the World speech in January. In his speech, the pope warned of “escalating tensions” worldwide. War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading,” he said.

In the days following, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby met with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, in a closed-door meeting at the Pentagon, according to reporting from The Free Press. Colby reportedly gave the cardinal a dressing down. “The United States,” Colby said, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

A separate U.S. official reportedly brought up the fourteenth-century Avignon papacy. This was a time tensions between the French monarchy and the papacy that lead to a seven-decade-long relocation of the papacy from Rome to the French-controlled Avignon. A Vatican official, speaking to The Free Press, called such a meeting “unprecedented.” The Vatican recently canceled a planned July 4 trip to the U.S. “The Pope may well never visit the United States under this administration,” a Vatican official reportedly said.

The Pentagon called reports of the meeting “highly exaggerated and distorted,” saying it was “a respectful and reasonable discussion.”. “We have nothing but the highest regard, and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See,” it said in a statement to Salon. The White House also downplayed the controversy, stating that Trump has “a positive relationship with the Vatican” and praising his policies.

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2026/04/09/reasonable-discussion-pentagon-denies-reports-that-official-threatened-pope-leo/

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Any purported "Catholic" in the administration should be excommunicated.

REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143646788