"Reasonable discussion": Pentagon denies reports that official threatened Pope Leo

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Salon

Published April 9, 2026 4:50PM (EDT)


Relations between Pope Leo XIV and the Trump administration are under intense scrutiny this week following reports of a contentious January meeting between a Vatican envoy and Defense Department officials. The meeting came after the pope directly addressed the U.S. war in Iran during his State of the World speech in January. In his speech, the pope warned of “escalating tensions” worldwide. War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading,” he said.

In the days following, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby met with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, in a closed-door meeting at the Pentagon, according to reporting from The Free Press. Colby reportedly gave the cardinal a dressing down. “The United States,” Colby said, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

A separate U.S. official reportedly brought up the fourteenth-century Avignon papacy. This was a time tensions between the French monarchy and the papacy that lead to a seven-decade-long relocation of the papacy from Rome to the French-controlled Avignon. A Vatican official, speaking to The Free Press, called such a meeting “unprecedented.” The Vatican recently canceled a planned July 4 trip to the U.S. “The Pope may well never visit the United States under this administration,” a Vatican official reportedly said.

The Pentagon called reports of the meeting “highly exaggerated and distorted,” saying it was “a respectful and reasonable discussion.”. “We have nothing but the highest regard, and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See,” it said in a statement to Salon. The White House also downplayed the controversy, stating that Trump has “a positive relationship with the Vatican” and praising his policies.

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2026/04/09/reasonable-discussion-pentagon-denies-reports-that-official-threatened-pope-leo/

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Any purported "Catholic" in the administration should be excommunicated.

REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143646788

[hlthe2b]

1. Starting with Vance.. Then every damned one of the Opus Dei SCOTUS

[msongs]

2. record every talk with a trump agent, audio at least and video is better nt

[tetedur]

3. So the Pope is a liar?

Or his people are just "highly exaggerat[ing] and distort[ing] the facts because Trump's people are so "respectful"?

Right. . .

[Whip-poor-will]

4. The pope is against raping little children

Satan's servants at it again

[Scrivener7]

5. Sure, Jan. You never acted in a way that's completely consistent with past actions and the Pope is lying. Sure.

(Not that I think the Vatican is above lying, but I think this Pope is an actual decent person.)

[Prairie Gates]

6. Still no journalist has explained how the Pentagon is "summoning" foreign ambassadors

That's not done by Defense, but by State.

I'd like to hear a clear explanation of how this meeting was represented by the Pentagon. I would bet that it was pitched as a discussion about chaplain issues for Catholic service members. There's no scenario in which an Undersecretary of Defense "summons" a foreign ambassador to a meeting at the Pentagon to discuss foreign policy issues and the foreign ambassador appears.

The Ambassador of the Holy See was lured to this meeting under false pretenses.

[Jughead]

7. Catholics in the US......

61 Million

[AltairIV]

8. Wrong again.

The Department of Defense has absolutely no business discussing any business at all,, except assisting in the delivery of humanitarian aid, with the Vatican. Period. They don"t agree with comments made by a foriegn entity they can bring their concerns, hurt feelings, to the State Department.

[Conjuay]

9. "Hey this is a nice place ya have here (Vatican)

Be a shame if something was to happen to it..."

[travelingthrulife]

10. Yup. Elect a mob boss and you get a mob boss.

[Ray Bruns]

11. The question that everyone should be asking is why officials from the Vatican meeting with officials from the Pentagon.

What’s mango Mussolini doing? Asking the Swiss guards help open the Strait of Hormuz?

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Apparently this "meeting" happened back in January

and I saw an article and illustration by The Guardian that seemed to sum up the problem -

Pete Hegseth’s holy war: the militant Christian theology animating the US attack on Iran

The Guardian article has an animated gif of this -



Since the Queen of Cosplay ICE Barbie is gone, he has taken her place.

[24601]

12. At best, Salon's article is very sloppy reporting. Given that the US & Israel launched the ongoing military operations

on February 28th, it would have been extraordinary if, "...the pope directly addressed the U.S. war in Iran during his State of the World speech in January."

Leo XIV's address was delivered to the Holy See's diplomatic corps on January 9th. The full text of this address is available from OSV News, a Catholic news and information service: https://www.osvnews.com/full-text-pope-leo-xivs-address-to-diplomatic-corps-jan-9-2026/

It's unclear why Salon misreported Leo's address, which has sufficient references to war and peace without making up a nonexistent link to Iran. The reasonable inference is that Pentagon representatives were accurate in describing reports about the meeting as “highly exaggerated and distorted.”

[BumRushDaShow]

14. "which has sufficient references to war and peace without making up a nonexistent link to Iran."

Did you forget this from JUNE 2025?

US has struck three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says, joining Israeli air campaign (June 21, 2025)

Trump says U.S. 'completely and totally obliterated' nuclear facilities in Iran (June 21, 2025)

Iran reportedly moves to close Strait of Hormuz after US attacks (June 22, 2025)

Iran launches missiles at US military base in Qatar in retaliation for American bombing (June 23, 2025)

Trump says both sides violate ceasefire, tells Israel: 'Do not drop those bombs' (June 24, 2025)

Exclusive: Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say (June 24, 2025)

Iran willing to return to talks as ceasefire with Israel takes hold (June 24, 2025)


Pope Leo IV was installed on May 18, 2025, a month BEFORE the above happened -

Pope Leo Makes Plea for Unity and World Peace During Inauguration Mass

The past 15 months have been such an abject nightmare, that it can be easy to forget which atrocities happened when. I expect Iran was VERY MUCH included in that address, but not by name (as he didn't explicitly name any other engagements around the world either).

[24601]

15. Direct answer to your question is that I forgot none of the nuclear strike information and reporting from last June

I credit Leo with sufficient wisdom that he would have made that connection if that was his intent. But he did not.

"Iran" is not in his address. "United States" is not in his address - there is a reference to the "American Pacific Coast." That's not about Iran.
The three references to "Israel" relate to Gaza, suspension of humanitarian operations, and the two-state solution.

He spoke directly to the Venezuelan operation, which was about a week before his address. He spoke directly about the "desperate situation in Haiti,..."

He references Myanmar, East Africa, the African Great Lakes Region, Bangladesh, the Sahel, Nigeria, Syria, Mozambique, the Caribbean Sea, the Vietnamese authorities, Kazakhstan, Burundi and Belarus.

Leo has no problem naming the names where he intends to do so. Why then would Iran be absent from his address if he, as Salon says "directly addressed the U.S. war in Iran?"

This was bad reporting. They made it up. We just don't know why.

[republianmushroom]

16. Of course they do. chuckle, chuckle, wink, wink.

[republianmushroom]

17. Hegseth Team Threatens Pope, Shocking World + PANICKING Trump!