Pentagon disputes report senior officials lectured Vatican diplomat about Pope Leo

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The top Vatican diplomat in the U.S. was brought to the Pentagon in January for a “bitter lecture” about comments from Pope Leo XIV that some senior U.S. defense officials perceived as criticism of the Trump administration, The Free Press reported April 6.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon confirmed a meeting took place, but denied the report’s description of that meeting in written comments to OSV News.

“Vatican officials briefed on the meeting, who spoke with The Free Press on the condition of anonymity, described it as a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” the report said.

The Vatican Embassy, or apostolic nunciature, in Washington told OSV News in a written statement that the meeting took place. But the statement did not shed light on the tone of the meeting or offer specifics about what was discussed there.

“We can confirm that Cardinal Christophe Pierre had a meeting on January 22, 2026, at the Pentagon where he and several officials had discussed current affairs,” the statement said. “Meetings with government officials are a standard practice for the Nuncio, who serves as the Holy See’s ambassador to the United States. The Apostolic Nunciature is grateful for the opportunities to meet and dialogue with government officials and others in Washington to discuss areas of mutual concern.”

In a written statement provided to OSV News, an official with the War Department, a moniker for the Department of Defense, said, “The Free Press’s characterization of the meeting is highly exaggerated and distorted.”

“The meeting between Pentagon and Vatican officials was a respectful and reasonable discussion,” the statement said. “We have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See.”

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, acknowledged the report in comments to reporters in Rome April 9, but declined to comment on its accuracy.

“As for the more complex current issues, the pope has never stopped speaking out on this — even on recent occasions, like just a couple of days ago when he left Castel Gandolfo,” Bruni said, speaking in Italian, adding the report seems to reference “something that happened in January.”

“So, in short, I don’t have any specific answers to offer on that, other than that the pope’s words are more recent,” he said.

The Free Press reported that after Pope Leo’s Jan. 9 speech to members of the diplomatic corps, Eldridge Colby, undersecretary of war for policy, summoned the Holy See’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, to the Pentagon. In the speech, the pontiff had condemned zeal for war and raised alarm that “the principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”

The Free Press, an online outlet that recently became a division of CBS News, described the Colby-Cardinal Pierre meeting as likely unprecedented, as there does not appear to be any public record of any Vatican official ever taking a meeting at the Pentagon.

The report claimed Vatican officials said the Pentagon officials were “enraged” about a passage of the speech about what some call the “Donroe Doctrine,” or Trump’s argument for American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, his spin on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which sought to reduce European influence in the Americas.

“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies,” the pontiff said in his January speech.

According to the report, an unnamed U.S. official even “went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy,” a tumultuous period in Church history where popes took up residence in Avignon, France, instead of in Rome, from 1309-1378, due to tremendous military pressure from King Philip IV of France. The king had violently feuded with one of the popes in Rome, leading to Pope Boniface VIII’s untimely death and a new pontiff who agreed to transfer the papacy to Avignon.

In response to a question about The Free Press report while traveling in Hungary, Vice President JD Vance first told reporters, “With no disrespect to the cardinal, I don’t know who Cardinal Christophe Pierre is.”

After being reminded of Cardinal Pierre’s role, Vance replied, “Oh, OK, OK. I’ve met him before. Sorry. I just didn’t remember the name.”

Vance, who is the second Catholic to be U.S. vice president, said he had not seen the report, but “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,” he said.

Cardinal Pierre, 80, retired this year as the Vatican’s ambassador, or apostolic nuncio, to the U.S. with Pope Leo selecting Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, to serve as the next apostolic nuncio to the U.S. on March 7.

According to the Vatican bulletin, Pope Leo met April 9 with Archbishop Caccia, who previous to his new assignment had represented the Holy See at the United Nations. Archbishop Caccia also met with Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, to discuss the U.S.-Holy See relationship and areas of mutual concern, the U.S. Embassy said April 8.

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