In a stunning development, Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre to the Pentagon in January for a confrontational meeting. According to sources briefed on the encounter, Colby's team lectured the Vatican's then-ambassador about American military power and warned that the Catholic Church should align with U.S. interests.

What made the meeting extraordinary was when an unidentified U.S. official invoked the Avignon Papacy - a 14th-century period when French forces controlled the papacy - as a veiled threat. Vatican officials were reportedly so alarmed by this reference to military force against the Holy See that they shelved plans for Pope Leo XIV's planned visit to the United States later this year.

The confrontation helps explain Pope Leo's increasingly assertive public stance on foreign policy and immigration. After the Pentagon meeting, the pope doubled down on his criticism of military-based diplomacy, choosing instead to visit Lampedusa on July 4, 2026 - the Italian island where thousands of North African migrants arrive by sea. Vatican sources indicate the Holy See declined a White House invitation for America's 250th anniversary due to disagreements over mass deportation policies and concerns about being used as a partisan political prop.