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.
“Vatican officials briefed on the meeting, who spoke with The Free Press on the condition of anonymity, described it as a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants—and that the Church had better take its side,” the outlet reported.
Pentagon officials “picked apart” the American pontiff’s January speech, “reading it as a hostile message directed at Trump’s policies,” according to the outlet’s sources. The Pentagon was reportedly furious that the speech challenged Trump’s so-called Donroe Doctrine that the Western Hemisphere should be controlled by the United States.
At one point during the meeting, according to the Free Press, “one U.S. official went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy, the period in the 1300s when the French Crown leveraged its military power to dominate the papal authority.”
The Vatican did not respond to the Free Press about the Avignon Papacy being invoked, and the Pentagon initially declined comment on the story before telling the Free Press that its “characterization of the meeting is highly exaggerated and distorted.
“The meeting between Pentagon and Vatican officials was a respectful and reasonable discussion. We have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See,” the statement continued.
The relationship between the United States and the Vatican had been devolving since Leo was invited by fellow Catholic and Vice President JD Vance to attend America’s 250th anniversary celebration.
The Vatican held off on RSVPing in part due to American bishops being at odds with the Trump administration’s immigration policy and reluctance to have the Vatican be a factor in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
Now, the Vatican has declined the invitation.
“Instead, on July 4, 2026, the American pope will visit Lampedusa, a tiny island in the Mediterranean that serves as a gateway for North African migrants risking everything to reach Europe,” the Free Press reported. “No pope has ever been more aware of what that date means, and Leo is too deliberate to have chosen July 4 by accident.”
A Vatican official was more straight-forward to the outlet.
“The Pope may well never visit the United States under this administration,” they said.
