this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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Leo used the address to denounce a world ruled by “a diplomacy based on force” and “zeal for war.”

In January, behind closed doors at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States — and delivered a lecture.

America, Colby and his colleagues told the cardinal, has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.

As tempers rose, one U.S. official reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the Avignon Papacy, the period when the French Crown used military force to bend the bishop of Rome to its will.

That scene, broken this week by Mattia Ferraresi in an extraordinary piece of journalism for The Free Press, may be the most remarkable moment in the long and knotted history of the American republic’s relationship with the Catholic Church.

In the speech that enraged Pete Hegseth and top Pentagon officials, Pope Leo XIV said: “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.”

“War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading.

“The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”

Pete Hegseth’s pastor and mentor says the United States should ban public Masses, Marian processions, and Corpus Christi devotions.

Hegseth invited the anti-Catholic preacher to lead a prayer service at the Pentagon on February 14.

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/pete-hegseths-pastor-wants-to-ban

For the first time in modern history, the Pentagon offered no Good Friday services for Catholics this year.

While Catholics don't celebrate Mass on Good Friday, they do venerate the cross of Jesus Christ and receive the Eucharist.

Earlier this year, Pete Hegseth invited his pastor to speak at the Pentagon. That pastor has called for banning public expressions of Catholicism in the United States.

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/trump-vance-white-house-escalates

Here is an Archive link with the full article

https://archive.ph/H3cfR

all 48 comments
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[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 2 points 6 hours ago

I really wonder how all my devoutly Catholic, Republican former coworkers are reacting to this.

[–] nocturnedragonite@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 9 hours ago

Ah fascist infighting warms my heart lmao 🤣

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 3 points 12 hours ago

The Nazi pedophile cabals are fighting

[–] XxFemboy_Stalin_420_69xX@hexbear.net 10 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined

LIB

[–] bunnossin@hexbear.net 9 points 14 hours ago

The principle established after the Second World War, which established the power of the United States to violate the borders of other nations, has been completely undermined.

[–] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 22 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Earlier this year, Pete Hegseth invited his pastor to speak at the Pentagon. That pastor has called for banning public expressions of Catholicism in the United States.

I actually can't believe they're putting Catholics on the same level as gay people

[–] bunnossin@hexbear.net 8 points 14 hours ago

Real dying empire hours

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 13 points 20 hours ago

Be pretty funny if there's a legal challenge that goes to the SCOTUS. Last time I looked, 7 of the 9 justices were Catholic. It may be down to 6 now but it's still a lot.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Threatening the head of the most powerful religious organisation in the world seems like a very bad plan for maintaining global influence.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 14 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 12 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Invade the Vatican? Yeah me too it would be devastating for the US internationally. Quite possibly the worst thing for the american image I can think of. The USian state would be a pariah to 1.4 billion catholics for the next 70 years at least while they die off. More if you count sympathetic christians from other branches. And even more when you count agnostic people who like listening to the pope a couple times a year.

[–] Llituro@hexbear.net 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

if you're the pope, imagine letting yourself get threatened like that. excommunications should genuinely make a comeback. but it's like, are you God's emissary on earth or not man? because if so, this can only be understood as catholics attempting to threaten God with the u.s. military. what else would the pope have to fear from a man?

[–] GoodGuyWithACat@hexbear.net 10 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Technically I don't think Trump can get excommunicated because he's not Catholic.

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 1 points 9 hours ago

They could put the entire Burger Reich under interdict.

[–] Llituro@hexbear.net 8 points 16 hours ago

no, but jd can be

jd vance should absolutely be excommunicated though

[–] regul@hexbear.net 72 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I would love there to be a Washington Anti-Pope to counter the Bishop of Rome who was born in Chicago.

[–] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 38 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Deep Dish Pope vs NYC Style AntiPope

[–] Beaver@hexbear.net 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] KurtVonnegut@hexbear.net 27 points 1 day ago

Congratulations J.D. Vance, you are now Pope Sofa, First of his Name.

[–] Des@hexbear.net 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

swiss guard armory with guns pikes and 15th century armor

don't make the Pope get his army to break out the idiosyncratic firepower. only military unit on earth that could be used as an effective time traveling army

[–] Speaker@hexbear.net 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

HALBErD stands for High Altitude Laser Beam for Erasing Dicks

[–] fox@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago

Haeresim Auxilio Lucis Beatae Everrit Radiis Divinatis

[–] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 44 points 1 day ago

UPDATE: Letters from Leo can now independently confirm that the meeting took place — and that the Vatican was so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that Pope Leo XIV shelved plans to visit the United States later this year.

Many in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.

https://x.com/ChristopherHale/status/2041959904823366074

[–] duderium@hexbear.net 45 points 1 day ago

19 84 you’re in 1309 motherfucker

[–] UmbraVivi@hexbear.net 50 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This seems so idiotic? Why the hell would you make an enemy of the Pope? Isn't the Catholic church a major pillar of Western soft power?

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 36 points 1 day ago

Not when they criticize you.

[–] Lussy@hexbear.net 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean, the pope lives in an entirely different country, is the fucking pope and yet…he hasn’t called this out a single time?

Why should Trump be scared of anyone?

[–] blobjim@hexbear.net 46 points 1 day ago

“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 genre of statement where you act oblivious to the last 80 years of world history sucks so much.

I just watched Soundtrack to a Coup d'etat last night and there were many instances of people describing being blackmailed, threatened ("arm-twisted"), and bribed by the US, or US officials themselves describing it using euphemisms.

And we see this kind of rhetoric about things being at a "new low" or whatever even in left-wing spaces where people really should know better.

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Shia Catholicism merger when?

[–] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Okay, is the real? And I realize I know nothing about Islamic prophecy.

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Apparently Shia prophecy involves Jesus returning with the Mahdi.

This image is from Easter. I'm pretty sure it's real.

[–] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 1 points 12 hours ago

Mahdeez nuts

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago

The Messiah at the end of times.

[–] Civility@hexbear.net 16 points 1 day ago
[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Please install antipope, the butthurt will be delicious

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago

I'm holding out for the church to excommunicate some officials first. Then antipope.

[–] BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Trump nuke the pope :timmy-pray:

[–] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 29 points 1 day ago (3 children)

He is just going to give him more aura

Atom-bombed Mary

Atom-bombed Mary (Japanese: 被爆のマリア, Hepburn: Hibaku no Maria), also known as Our Lady of Nagasaki or the Virgin of Nagasaki, is the head from a wooden statue of Mary, mother of Jesus from a cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan. The statue survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945, but was severely damaged as a result of the explosion

Untapped emoji potential for the Catholic Posadist demographic

[–] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago

Great drag name potential

[–] BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

severely damaged

I'll take what I can get :shrug-outta-hecks:

[–] Speaker@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago

I can fix her 😤

[–] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I love this duel-allegiance rhetoric. If anyone, any American, can be said to not have duel-allegiance, or not have any remaining allegiance to their birth country, it’s the fucking pope.

[–] CliffordBigRedDog@hexbear.net 8 points 20 hours ago

Pope Leo has dual aliegence to the white sox

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 16 points 1 day ago

Drone strike pope