Revealed: Pentagon Threatens Vatican, Alludes to Pope's Murder

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ROME – Repeated criticisms by Pope Leo XIV of US President Donald Trump’s warlust reportedly provoked the anger of the US Department of Defense, known as the Pentagon. A Pentagon official reportedly summoned the Vatican’s envoy to the US and threatened him by alluding to the era of papal murders in the 14th century.

On Monday, The Free Press reported that following Pope Leo XIV’s annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps in January, in which he criticised countries inciting conflicts worldwide, the US Department of Defense invited Cardinal Christophe Pierre to meet. At the time, Pierre was serving as Pope Leo’s personal envoy to the United States.

The Pentagon’s request to meet with a Vatican official was “unprecedented,” according to the report. According to Vatican and US officials briefed on the meeting, the Pentagon criticised the Pope’s January statements and interpreted them as a hostile attack on Trump’s policies.

One Vatican official told The Free Press that the Pentagon was furious about the Pope’s criticism of the “Donroe Doctrine” – Trump’s update to the Monroe Doctrine, which calls for the US to be the unrivalled controller in the Western Hemisphere.

The Pentagon reportedly responded to the Pope’s statement that “diplomacy promoting dialogue and seeking consensus among all parties is being replaced by diplomacy based on strength, whether by individuals or allied groups.” That criticism followed the US attack on Venezuela and the arrest of its leader Nicolas Maduro in January. The president was raised in the Catholic faith, though he later showed syncretic religious tendencies.

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby then held a closed meeting with Cardinal Pierre to deliver a bitter lecture on the Pope’s January criticisms.

“The United States,” said Colby, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church would do well to side with the US.”

One US official present at the meeting alluded to the Avignon Papacy in the 14th century. That era began when King Philip IV of France wanted to use church finances to fund his war with England.

Pope Boniface VIII protested, leading to a feud. In 1303, Pope Boniface VIII followed up with a decree excommunicating the French king and his kingdom. The French king’s Italian allies then stormed the papal residence and beat Pope Boniface VIII to death. The attack forced the papacy to move from Rome to Avignon, a territory within France.