The current pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, has indicated that he will continue the liberal trajectory pursued by his predecessor, Pope Francis. The new openness has allowed some reconciliation between LGBTQIA Catholics and the wider Catholic communities. Francis for example, whilst not challenging orthodoxy, found room to welcome LGBTQIA+ Catholics into meetings and consultations, and to take part in observations of the church. Pope Leo has also firmly spoken out against right wing warmongering. In a surprise and almost surrealist move however, the Trump administration has attempted to threaten the Papacy, even bring up the fourteenth century period when military power forced the Papacy to Avignon in France.
In an event with no modern precedent, a senior Vatican official was summoned to a closed-door meeting at the Pentagon, signalling a dramatic rupture in US-Holy See relations. The encounter occurred days after Pope Leo XIV's critical State of the World address, according to independent liberal news website Alternet.
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge Colby, called in Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. Sources familiar with the discussion have characterised it as a "bitter lecture," during which Colby asserted that the United States "has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world," and warned the Catholic Church that it "had better take its side."
In a stark historical allusion, a US official present reportedly invoked the 14th-century Avignon Papacy, a period when the French crown used military and political pressure to force the papacy's relocation from Rome to Avignon, effectively bringing it under monarchical control.
The White House has dismissed the account of the meeting as "highly exaggerated." However, the Holy See responded decisively by cancelling Pope Leo XIV's planned visit to the United States.
The pontiff has been a vocal critic of President Trump's administration, first condemning its migrant policies and more recently its war with Iran. Following a post by Trump on Truth Social stating "a whole civilization will die tonight," the Pope issued a direct rebuttal. Speaking from his country residence, Leo XIV called the threat against Iran's people "truly unacceptable."
He further denounced the conflict as "unjust," arguing it was "not resolving anything" and was instead fuelling global economic and energy crises while sowing deeper hatred worldwide—an assessment many international observers share.
