The Pentagon, the pope, and Avignon: Why a centuries-old Catholic disaster is again

[ad_1] Most American Catholics had been in all probability not anticipating to spend the primary week of Easter attempting to determine whether or not their authorities was threatening to overthrow the primary American-born pope.

But a handful of stories experiences this week raised that very unusual chance. They landed simply as each the Roman Catholic Church and right-wing Christian influencers have been ramping up their criticism of the Trump administration over the Iran battle.

A report from the Free Press this week blew up tensions on the suitable already escalating over the US-Israeli battle on Iran. It alleged that Pentagon officers met with a prime Vatican diplomat to the US and raised the reminiscence of a darkish time within the Catholic Church’s historical past: when French guidelines exercised energy over the Church and the pope. There at the moment are competing accounts of what truly occurred in that assembly, and denials by the Trump administration and the Vatican. These experiences sparked furor amongst Catholics and spiritual conservatives — including gasoline to an ideological civil battle threatening the American proper, and providing one other instance of the rift between the Vatican and the US. This burgeoning scandal hinges on information experiences that in January, the earlier ambassador of the Vatican to the USA was referred to as into an uncommon assembly with Division of Protection officers on the Pentagon and dressed down . The Pentagon officers, reportedly, wished to complain a couple of speech Pope Leo XIV gave in Rome that appeared to criticize American international coverage. Throughout the assembly, one official issued what some within the church noticed as a veiled menace to the Vatican: a warning that the US wields limitless army energy, and that the pope ought to take heed to that.

If true, this episode would mark a low level in fashionable Vatican-American political relations — on prime of being a serious spiritual scandal for Catholics within the US.

The Trump administration denies these accounts; the Vatican is preserving principally quiet. In the meantime, the reporters and writers who first surfaced these allegations are standing by their tales.

Regardless of the fact finally ends up being, this scandal factors to some vital fracture traces in American spiritual life, and gives a key to understanding the best way the Iran battle is cracking up the spiritual proper. It additionally matches right into a broader battle that's testing MAGA Catholics’ resolve, and organising the Catholic Church as one of many Trump administration’s most seen and related critics.

So what precisely is the scandal?

This complete saga started with a report from the Free Press on Wednesday, during which Italian journalist Mattia Ferraresi reported on a beforehand unknown assembly between Undersecretary of Protection for Coverage Elbridge Colby, then-top Vatican diplomat within the US Cardinal Christophe Pierre, and a handful of Pentagon officers.

The assembly, which is now confirmed to have occurred, was uncommon, Ferraresi and different experiences famous, due to the place and when it occurred: on the Pentagon, as an alternative of with diplomats of the Division of State, and after Pope Leo had delivered a speech decrying the breakdown within the post-war worldwide order and the escalating use of pressure and violence overseas by nations, together with the US, to attain their goals.

“Warfare is again in vogue and the zeal for battle is spreading,” Leo had mentioned in his speech to diplomats.

That the assembly occurred isn’t doubtful; however nobody appears to agree on what was truly mentioned within the encounter. The Free Press reported that the assembly was meant to be a warning to the Vatican, a reminder that militarily, the US can do “no matter it needs…and that the Vatican, and Leo, higher take its aspect.” And so, it devolved right into a “bitter lecture.”

The Pentagon, in the meantime, mentioned Thursday that the group “had a substantive, respectful, {and professional} assembly” and that “latest reporting of the assembly is extremely exaggerated and distorted.” The US ambassador to the Holy See (the Vatican’s political authorities) echoed that sentiment, and referred to as media experiences exaggerations and fabrications.

However different information shops additionally started choosing up on the fallout. NBC Chicago, of the pope’s hometown, quoted a Vatican source who referred to as the Pentagon assembly “most disagreeable and confrontational.” The Monetary Instances reported that the assembly was imagined to ship a “pleasant message” to the pope, and to ask the Vatican to be extra supportive of the Trump administration’s insurance policies, however unraveled when Pierre mentioned the pope would observe Catholic values in conducting Vatican international coverage.

That’s when one particular time period jumps out, which brought about this complete episode to turn out to be an precise scandal. Somebody within the room, in keeping with the Free Press, the Financial Times , and unbiased journalist Christopher Hale , invoked the title “Avignon” — which some Vatican officers reportedly understood to be a army menace towards the Vatican.

Why did this specific phrase set off alarm bells? To reply that, we've got to return 700 years.

Did a Trump official actually threaten the Vatican?

Although these accounts don’t agree on who invoked Avignon, the time period is a set off for Catholics, historians, and historical past buffs: It references the French metropolis that served as the house base for popes within the 14th century after a French king, Philip IV, despatched a military to Italy the place they attacked the sitting pope, Boniface VIII, after years of feuding over who was the preeminent political energy.

Phiip IV went on to pressure the election of a brand new French pope, who moved the papacy to Avignon. For 70 years, popes held court docket and ruled Christendom from town’s papal palace — and when the final Avignon pope tried to maneuver the workplace again to Rome, it spawned a disaster for the church and the rise of rival “antipopes” in Avignon claiming to be the actual pope for practically 40 years after.

As you would possibly now perceive, “Avignon” is a loaded time period. And mixed with the character of the assembly — on the Pentagon, having to do with feedback Pope Leo had made about America’s use of pressure — you may see how this episode may very well be interpreted as being a veiled warning in regards to the church staying in its lane relating to criticizing the dominant army energy.

Why are the US and the pope so at odds?

No matter who invoked Avignon or how confrontational the assembly was behind the scenes, it matches right into a pattern of rising public conflict between the Church and the Trump presidency.

This is applicable to each type and substance: Pope Leo, and the American bishops, have turn out to be loud critics of Trump’s immigration and mass deportation coverage, his international interventions overseas and use of pressure towards different nations, and the breakdown of the US-European alliance. For all intents and functions, MAGA has pressured the Catholic Church to look like the chief resistance .

However it’s the joint US-Israeli battle on Iran that has brought about essentially the most seen pressure and direct condemnation of Trump and the American authorities by the Roman pontiff. After spending weeks calling for peace talks and ceasefires, and preaching the Church’s anti-war message throughout Holy Week commemorations, Leo used Trump’s title for the first time final week, expressing hope that he was “searching for an off-ramp” from the battle.

And after Trump warned that Iranian civilization would possibly “die” on Tuesday, Leo condemned the statements as “actually unacceptable” and urged “the residents of all of the nations concerned to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to ask them, inform them to work for peace and to reject battle.”

Has Pope Leo weighed in on Avignon-gate?

The pope hasn’t mentioned something on this newest improvement, however the Vatican has weighed in — a major transfer given their conventional reluctance to handle these sorts of political disputes.

After the Vatican Press Workplace initially declined to comment earlier within the week, Vatican press secretary Matteo Bruni launched a press release on Friday confirming Cardinal Pierre met with Colby “for an trade of views on issues of mutual curiosity,” and that “the narrative provided by sure media shops relating to this assembly doesn't correspond in any respect with the reality” — with out clarifying which narrative that was, or the place current reporting received issues flawed.

In the meantime, the Vatican diplomat concerned within the assembly, Cardinal Pierre, informed one unbiased journalist he would “ prefer not speak .”

However the Free Press report urged that this dustup is main the Vatican to maintain the US authorities at arm’s size whereas Trump is president. The primary American pope has declined invites to return to the US throughout its 250th celebrations, and can as an alternative spend that point at an island in Italy the place migrants fleeing hazard in Africa often cease off whereas attempting to succeed in Europe. The Trump administration has openly supported anti-immigrant political events and leaders in Europe, whereas additionally attempting to dam asylum seekers and refugees from getting into America.

The place does JD Vance come into all this?

Vance, a Catholic convert who has a e-book popping out later this 12 months on his religion journey, was requested in regards to the Pentagon episode on Wednesday whereas touring in Hungary. He denied knowing the Vatican diplomat in query, and mentioned he’d slightly not touch upon an unconfirmed report.

Vance is the very best rating of a major variety of Catholics serving within the Trump administration (together with Secretary of State Marco Rubio), was one of many final public leaders to satisfy with the late Pope Francis earlier than his demise, and was famously rebuked by two popes (Francis and Leo, albeit earlier than the latter grew to become pope) for invoking his new faith to defend the Trump administration’s immigration coverage.

Past being a spectacle, Avignon-gate can also be a useful key to understanding what is occurring on the spiritual proper in 2026.

As Vance’s prior papal feuds point out, the Free Press story additionally runs into some intra-Catholic tensions. Colby, the Pentagon official embroiled within the mess and a reported ally of Vance, can also be Catholic. A few of the main mental figures on the suitable in MAGA circles are traditionalist Catholics who've been essential of the present and former popes for what they see as concessions to fashionable liberal political values.

Inside US politics, Vance additionally represents a wing of the GOP that's being cut up aside by the Iran battle, partly over spiritual traces — and in ways in which might threaten his potential aspirations for the presidency in 2028. This story might make that divide much more troublesome to navigate.

How does this newest story match into MAGA’s present civil battle?

Past being a spectacle, Avignon-gate can also be a useful key to understanding what is occurring on the spiritual proper in 2026, and the way the Iran battle is affecting each the MAGA coalition and the American Catholic Church.

The report landed simply as arguments over Israel and Iran had been driving a wedge between the GOP’s pro-Trump evangelical base, who are typically Christian Zionists sympathetic to Israel, and a gaggle of distinguished Catholic and non-evangelical commentators who're more and more hostile to Trump’s foreign policy agenda and demanding of Israel.

Among the many latter group, which incorporates Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Carrie Prejean Boller, and Nick Fuentes, Avignon-gate shortly grew to become a sizzling subject, with many desperate to embrace essentially the most explosive interpretation of occasions.

“On the pope factor, that's how you understand this administration is the antichrist…these individuals hate Catholics,” the self-described Catholic and white supremacist Nick Fuentes mentioned on his present Thursday. Boller took intention at Colby on X, saying , “you gained’t bully or threaten the Catholic Church into your unjust battle.”

Many of those extra isolationist and antiwar figures have additionally been condemned inside the suitable for either tolerating or openly espousing antisemitism . As they rally to the Church’s aspect now over the battle, and justify their opposition to Trump in increasingly theological terms , this episode places extra strain on Leo to handle the church’s relationship with them as properly. Ferraresi, the writer of the Free Press article that kicked off this affair, challenged Pope Leo in the identical piece to sentence “the rising choir of Catholic pundits injecting bigotry into the MAGA infosphere,” and never simply focus the church’s hearth on the pro-war proper.

Briefly, it’s a large number. Avignon-gate is nearly completely calibrated to boost temperatures not solely between the White Home and the Vatican, however inside the US Catholic neighborhood, and inside the MAGA motion. And the problems it raises are nowhere close to being resolved.