Overview
- Reports published Wednesday describe a January meeting at the Pentagon where Under Secretary for Policy Elbridge Colby allegedly summoned papal envoy Cardinal Christophe Pierre and delivered a harsh lecture.
- The Free Press says officials told the cardinal the United States can use its military power to do whatever it wants and warned that the Catholic Church should take its side.
- One U.S. official allegedly invoked the Avignon Papacy, a 14th‑century era when French rulers bent the papacy to their will, as a pointed historical threat.
- The story, echoed by The Daily Beast and Alternet, relies on unnamed Vatican officials briefed on the meeting, and there is no independent confirmation from the Pentagon, the Vatican, or the White House.
- Coverage frames the episode as evidence of a growing rift between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV, and some reports link it to the Vatican’s refusal to host the Pope for America’s 250th anniversary, though that link remains unverified.