The Trump administration is strongly denying reports that U.S. officials threatened Pope Leo XIV's ambassador to Washington during a January Pentagon meeting, calling the account "highly exaggerated and distorted" as tensions between the Vatican and the White House continue to rise.
According to the Financial Times, the controversy centers on a meeting between Cardinal Christophe Pierre, then the Vatican's ambassador to the United States, and Elbridge Colby, the U.S. under-secretary of defense for policy.
The report comes as Leo, the first American-born pontiff, has emerged as a vocal critic of the growing use of military force in world affairs.
"War is back in vogue and the zeal for war is spreading," Leo told diplomats prior to the meeting.
Francesco Sisci, co-founder of the Appia Institute, a geopolitical think tank that follows Vatican diplomacy, told the Times that some administration officials may have viewed Colby as the right person to deliver what he called a "friendly message" urging the Vatican to align more closely with Washington.
But Sisci said the meeting went badly after Pierre made clear that Leo would follow his own course guided by Church values.
Another official then invoked Avignon, Sisci said, raising the spectre of the 70-year period from 1309 to 1376 when a rival papacy set up by the French king stood in opposition to Rome.
Mention of the Avignon papacy was seen as a veiled warning that Washington could install a loyal "antipope" in opposition to Leo if the Chicago native did not get on board with the administration's agenda, according to Sisci.
"It might have gotten a bit intense," he said. "It went wrong. It was very bad form. Somebody misspoke."
The Pentagon pushed back forcefully, insisting the meeting was "a respectful and reasonable discussion."
In a later statement, it said Colby "had a substantive, respectful and professional meeting with Cardinal Pierre, the then-Papal Nuncio, and his team" on Jan. 22. The discussion included "issues of morality in foreign policy" and the "logic of the U.S. National Security Strategy," the Pentagon said.
The White House has also sought to defuse the situation. Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, told the Times that the administration has a "positive relationship" with the Vatican.
"The president has done more than any of his predecessors to save lives and resolve global conflicts," she said. "Following the completion of his military objectives in Iran, he is hopeful that the agreement under discussion can lead to a lasting peace in the Middle East."
Strains between Leo and President Donald Trump have been building since the pope's elevation nearly a year ago. Leo has criticized the administration's immigration crackdown, while wider disputes have grown over U.S. policy toward Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.
Father Antonio Spadaro, under-secretary of the Vatican's dicastery for culture and education, argued that Trump and Leo are not political adversaries.
"The stakes are something else entirely: it's the pope fighting against war," he wrote Thursday on a Catholic news website. "Not a president but against a way of thinking. Against the very idea that makes war possible."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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