Trump Vatican clash highlights rising tensions between U.S. military policy and global religious diplomacy, raising questions about influence, power, and international relations.
A Trump administration official gave the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States a “bitter lecture” about America’s military might and suggested the Catholic Church get on board with American foreign policy after Pope Leo XIV gave a speech condemning use of force and preaching diplomacy, according to a new report.
Cardinal Chrisophe Pierre, who at the time of the January meeting was the Holy See’s ambassador to the U.S., was summoned by Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby to the Pentagon in an unprecedented move, the Free Press reported Monday.
The Pentagon has said reports of a meeting between senior Department of Defense officials and the Vatican’s representatives in the US are “highly exaggerated and distorted.”
The Free Press reports the Pentagon summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre for a meeting with Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby.
At the January meeting, Pentagon officials reportedly criticized a speech made by Pope Leo XIV and told the cardinal the Vatican needed to get on board.
“America has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world,” Colby was quoted as saying. “The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
One Pentagon official reportedly raised the Avignon Papacy, a period in the Middle Ages where the papacy was controlled by the King of France backed by his military power.
