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Senior Trump administration officials allegedly summoned the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States to the Pentagon and told him that America “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world” and that the Catholic Church “had better take its side” – with one official invoking the 14th century Avignon Papacy in a reference that Vatican insiders interpreted as a threat of military force against the Holy See.
The extraordinary story, broken by The Free Press and independently corroborated by Christopher Hale of the Letters from Leo newsletter, has sent shockwaves through Washington, the Vatican and Catholic communities worldwide – and appears to have had significant consequences: Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pontiff in history, subsequently cancelled plans to visit the United States.
What allegedly happened
Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech in January, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre – the Vatican’s US representative – to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for what those briefed on the encounter described as a bitter lecture.
According to multiple Vatican officials who spoke to The Free Press on condition of anonymity, the message delivered by Colby and his colleagues was blunt: “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
As tensions escalated in the room, one US official present at the meeting invoked the Avignon Papacy – a period in the 14th century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and death, and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon in France.
There is no public record of any Vatican official ever taking a meeting at the Pentagon, and certainly none of a senior US official threatening the Vicar of Christ on Earth with the prospect of an American Babylonian Captivity.
Christopher Hale subsequently confirmed the meeting independently and reported that many Vatican officials “saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon Papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.” Cardinal Pierre sat through the lecture in silence. The Holy See has not, since that day, given an inch on its position.
What prompted the confrontation
The backdrop to the alleged meeting is a series of public statements by Pope Leo XIV that placed him in direct opposition to the Trump administration’s approach to the Iran war and its broader foreign policy.
Pope Leo – born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, making him the first American ever elected to lead the Catholic Church – delivered his State of the World address in January emphasising his opposition to war and urging diplomacy as a solution to international conflict. The speech was widely read as a rebuke of Trump’s military strategy, which at that point had already involved significant strikes on Iranian territory and was producing a global energy crisis.
The Pope had also been a vocal critic of the administration’s mass deportation programme, which has put him at odds with American bishops who are among Trump’s most prominent religious allies. The intersection of the Iran war, deportations and the Pope’s explicit advocacy for migrants and refugees created a fundamental ideological clash between the Vatican and the White House.
Trump himself had not directly addressed the Pope’s remarks publicly. But behind closed doors, tensions had been building for months – culminating in the January Pentagon meeting.
The consequences – no US visit
The most concrete consequence of the alleged confrontation is the cancellation of what would have been a historically significant visit. JD Vance personally extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV in May 2025, just two weeks after his election in the conclave, asking the first American pope to visit the United States for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations in July 2026. The Holy See initially considered the request, then postponed it indefinitely because of foreign policy disagreements, the rising opposition of American bishops to the Trump-Vance mass deportation regime, and a refusal to become a partisan trophy in the 2026 midterms. “The administration tried every possible way to have the Pope in the US in 2026,” one Vatican official told The Free Press.
Instead of attending White House celebrations on 4 July 2026, Pope Leo will spend America’s 250th birthday on Lampedusa – the tiny Mediterranean island between Tunisia and Sicily where North African migrants wash ashore by the thousands, often after perilous and sometimes fatal crossings. One Vatican official told The Free Press: “The Pope may well never visit the United States under this administration.”
JD Vance’s awkward response
When confronted with the story during a visit to Hungary, Vice President JD Vance – a Catholic convert who has styled himself as a devout and intellectually serious Christian – did not exactly project confidence.
Asked by a reporter whether the account was accurate, Vance initially said he did not know who Cardinal Christophe Pierre was. When the reporter explained that Pierre was the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States – one of the most senior diplomatic figures in the Catholic world – Vance quickly corrected himself.
“Oh, OK, OK, I’ve met him before. Sorry. I just didn’t remember the name. I’ve never seen this reporting. I’d like to actually talk to Cardinal Christophe Pierre and, frankly, to our people, to figure out what actually happened. I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that.”
The stumble – not knowing the name of the Vatican’s representative to America, then abruptly remembering having met him – added an element of farce to an already extraordinary story.
The Pentagon’s denial
The Defense Department pushed back on the characterisation of the meeting, with a spokesperson telling reporters the account was “highly exaggerated and distorted.” The statement 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.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
The denial does not, however, address the specific detail at the heart of the story – the reference to the Avignon Papacy. The Free Press’s reporting is based on multiple Vatican officials who were briefed on the meeting. The independent corroboration from Letters from Leo adds a second track of sourcing. Neither publication has retracted the story.
What is the Avignon Papacy – and why does it matter?
For readers unfamiliar with medieval ecclesiastical history, the reference requires some context. The Avignon Papacy refers to the period from 1309 to 1376 during which the seat of the Catholic Church was relocated from Rome to Avignon in southern France. This happened because the French Crown – under King Philip IV – used political pressure and ultimately military force to break the independence of the papacy.
The immediate trigger was a dispute between Philip and Pope Boniface VIII. Philip’s agents physically seized Boniface in 1303 in what became known as the “Slap of Anagni” – a humiliation so profound that Boniface reportedly died of shock within weeks. Subsequent popes, dependent on French military protection, moved the papacy to Avignon where it remained under effective French influence for nearly 70 years.
In the context of the alleged Pentagon meeting, invoking this episode carries an unmistakeable meaning: that a sufficiently powerful state can use military force to subordinate the papacy to its political interests. The fact that Vatican officials interpreted it as a threat – rather than a historical observation – reflects the gravity with which that reference would be received by anyone familiar with Church history.
The broader significance
The story arrives at a moment when the Trump administration’s relationship with religious authority has already become a subject of intense debate – following the Easter event at which the President’s spiritual advisor compared him to Jesus Christ, and Trump himself joked that “they call me king now.”
The apparent willingness of Pentagon officials to tell the Vatican that America can do “whatever it wants” – and to invoke a medieval precedent for forcing the Pope into submission – represents a striking escalation in a pattern of behaviour that has seen Trump’s administration treat international norms, democratic conventions and now religious institutions as obstacles rather than constraints.
Whether the story will have lasting political consequences – particularly among America’s 70 million Catholics, many of whom form a core part of the MAGA coalition – remains to be seen. What is already clear is that the first American pope in history has chosen to spend America’s 250th birthday on an island of refugees rather than at the White House. That is a statement that requires no translation.
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