A top Vatican diplomat was summoned to the Pentagon for a “bitter lecture” demanding that the Pope get behind Donald Trump, it has emerged.
Vatican officials briefed on the meeting told The Free Press that one of the Pentagon’s most senior officials summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre to meet in January—then told him that the United States has the military power to do “whatever it wants,” and that Pope Leo, the first American-born pontiff, “better take its side.”
The site writes that “as tensions escalated,” 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.”
Pierre was reportedly summoned to the meeting by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a Catholic who served in the first Trump administration and was nominated by Trump to his current role. Colby is a close ally of Catholic convert JD Vance. Such a meeting between Pentagon officials and the Vatican is believed to be unprecedented.
The Free Press writes that Pentagon brass “picked apart the pontiff’s January speech,” referring to his inaugural State of the World Address. They reportedly took issue with a passage in which Leo challenged Trump’s so-called Donroe Doctrine, saying, “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies.”
The bombshell revelation comes as Leo has publicly criticized Trump and his acolytes—first for their deadly, inhumane migrant crackdown, and most recently for the president’s threat on Tuesday morning to annihilate all of Iran.
Leo’s relationship with the Trump administration soured quickly after he was elected on May 8, writes the Rome-based journalist Mattia Ferraresi. The White House invited Leo to return home and celebrate America’s 250th birthday at the White House this summer, but he declined.
Ferraresi writes that the Holy See considered the invitation but decided not to make the trip over a “mix of foreign policy disagreements, the increasingly vocal opposition of U.S. bishops to Trump’s immigration policy, and a reluctance to become a political bargaining chip in the 2026 midterms.”
Leo is yet to travel stateside since his election and has no public plans to do so. He will instead spend July 4, 2026, on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa—a stopping point for African refugees hoping to reach Europe.
One Vatican official told The Free Press, “The Pope may well never visit the United States under this administration.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Defense Department said the Pentagon meeting with Pierre was “respectful and reasonable.”
“The Free Press’s characterization of the meeting is highly exaggerated and distorted,” the spokesperson said. “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.”
Leo, 70, has not called out Trump by name regarding his war with Iran, but has made clear his criticism is directed at the Oval Office.
“Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Leo said in a Palm Sunday address on March 29, a week-and-a-half before a ceasefire was reached. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Leo’s criticism of Trump became more pointed after the president issued a deranged threat to Iran in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, writing, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
The pope, calling the war with Iran “unjust,” said later that afternoon, “Today, as we all know, there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable.”
Leo went on to point out the harm being caused by Trump’s war, which he said is “not resolving anything.”
“In fact, we have a worldwide economic crisis, energy crisis, situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world.”
