US-Vatican Tensions Rise After Confrontational Pentagon Message

(MENAFN) Relations between the United States and the Catholic Church have grown tense since January, following a confrontational message delivered by senior US defense officials to a Vatican representative.

Reports indicate that Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s US envoy, to a private meeting shortly after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World address, in which he criticized US military policies.

According to reports, Colby emphasized Washington’s global military capabilities and urged the Church to align more closely with US strategic priorities. References were also reportedly made to the 14th-century Avignon papacy, when the French monarchy exerted influence over the Church.

The Trump administration reportedly objected to the pope’s critique of its militaristic approach, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior Pentagon officials particularly angered by Leo’s January 9 remarks suggesting that diplomacy was being sidelined in favor of force and that enthusiasm for war was growing.

The meeting was described in reports as an unprecedented act of pressure on the Catholic Church, with no prior known instance of such direct warnings.

Tensions continued into February, when the Holy See declined a White House invitation and instead scheduled a visit to Lampedusa, southern Italy, on July 4, a decision seen as symbolic.

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