Curious what the Catholics here think about the white house trying to bully the Vatican by bringing up the Avignon papacy.

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…

— Christopher Hale (@ChristopherHale) April 8, 2026

Doubt. Hale seems relatively new to Catholic Twitter and much of his content seems focused on regaining Catholic ground for the democrats. This happened in January yet the alleged bombshell is now... behind a paywall... and not spread among Catholic journalists of varying political associations. Most notable on this is The Pillar hasn't been able to verify, as they are probably the most "just the facts, ma'am" outfit in Catholic news.

This administration is doing well enough to tick off and splinter its base. BS stories like this only serve to act against their self-destruction.

We’ve reached out to sources close to several Vatican departments looking for confirmation of the Free Press report about Cardinal Pierre at the Pentagon.

We’ve not yet been able to confirm it. If we can, we’ll tell you. But for now, we have not confirmed.

For what it’s worth.

— JD Flynn (@jdflynn) April 9, 2026

RNS confirmed today that a meeting took place, but we have not found any Vatican officials describing it as the Free Press did. https://t.co/qEhQCje8I1

— JD Flynn (@jdflynn) April 9, 2026

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

This is unbelievable bullshit. There was no threat to attack the Vatican. Anyone stupid enough to swallow such an infantile conspiracy theory has no… https://t.co/9ENd0YhIGk

— Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) April 9, 2026

Would caution any Catholic who believes that Anne Applebaum or this guy - who plays online Catholic but as liberal apologist for infanticide & alphabet extremism - has the Church or the Papacy's interests at heart, to please grow up. The TDS is wild now. pic.twitter.com/M6x6j4gkWk

— Gray Connolly (@GrayConnolly) April 8, 2026

I think it’s time to dial it down a bit on the Trump v. Pope scenario…

First things first, The Free Press story alleging that the War Department badgered the papal nuncio is unverified, used anonymous sources, and the War Department emphatically denies it ever happened. The…

— Shane Schaetzel †☧ (@ShaneSchaetzel) April 9, 2026

I am skeptical of The Free Press’s story about the pope’s American delegation being scolded by the US War Department. It just comes across as sensationalist to me. The War Department is denying the claim, and the Holy See has not yet responded. 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/CJ9OvCyMJA

— Shane Schaetzel †☧ (@ShaneSchaetzel) April 9, 2026

Here's the key dissonance in this story that
Makes me think it's mostly false: anyone theologically literate enough to make reference to the Avignon Papacy would not be so flat footed to have invoked it as a threat of violence against the Holy See. I don't buy it. https://t.co/nduk2ZAw2U

— Jay W. Richards 🇺🇸 (@DrJayRichards) April 9, 2026

The Vatican totally canceled what would probably be the largest trip in modern Papal history and instead of giving the scoop to someone like Reuters, NYT, ABC, NBC who all have reporters in the Vatican they gave it to a washed up Obama staffer/twitter journalist

— Al Carbo (@carbo_al) April 9, 2026

Elbridge Colby doesn't talk like that.

I call BS on this story. https://t.co/DiiGLdgYeN

— Peter Laffin (@petermlaffin) April 8, 2026

Interesting, thanks for the additional perspective

I don't understand anything that was just posted….

Howdy Dammit said:

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I don't understand anything that was just posted….

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Basically Trump's undersecretary of War at the Pentagon met with the U.S. ambassador for the Vatican and threatened him with a 14th century weapon in the style of a captain planet villain, to move the Papacy to DC and install a pope that would be subordinate to the U.S. president if the Vatican doesn't throw its support behind all of our military campaigns.

That 100% happened.

Current ambassador to the Holy See relays his discussion with the then Apostolic Nuncio.

I was pleased to speak today with His Eminence, Cardinal Christophe Pierre.  As expected, he confirmed that recent media characterizations of his meeting with Undersecretary Colby are “fabrications” that were “just invented.” Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I… https://t.co/R2ogLy2HAf

— Ambassador Brian Burch (@BrianBurchUSA) April 9, 2026

It's good to question breaking news stories. The drive to be first or other nefarious motives push out a lot of false stories. But hey, perhaps they just want to build a dominant narrative versus the truth. F15 has a few posters that call for the 48-hour rule... for both your guy and also their guy.

Personally, I recall being initially suckered in by the Nick Sandman situation... that allegedly racist kid with a punchable face at the March for Life. Turns out he made bank from defamation lawsuits. I've tried to live by the 48-hour rule since.

More and more, Hale is being shown to be pushing BS rather than solid journalism. But had a US official done what was alleged, I would be ticked.

BonfireNerd04 said:

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Bob Lee said:

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Howdy Dammit said:

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I don't understand anything that was just posted….

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Basically Trump's undersecretary of War at the Pentagon met with the U.S. ambassador for the Vatican and threatened him with a 14th century weapon in the style of a captain planet villain, to move the Papacy to DC and install a pope that would be subordinate to the U.S. president if the Vatican doesn't throw its support behind all of our military campaigns.

That 100% happened.

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Now I'm wondering whom Trump would appoint as the Anti-Pope.

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Huckabee

Lot's of social media influencers ran with it, I saw this at 3:30 am before heading to the gym and have to admit angered me. "Truth is like a lion, you don't have to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself." Saint Augustine

Netanyahu Warns Trump That Vatican City Is Just One Month Away From A Nuclear Weapon pic.twitter.com/wxiTWzv84K

— The Babylon Bibi (@TheBabylonBibi) April 9, 2026

President Trump posts a lengthy attack on *checks notes* the Pope pic.twitter.com/aqO7iGOYYx

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) April 13, 2026

Have to say, "the pope is weak on crime" wasn't on my bingo card.

Dude is legit off his rocker

Blasphemy

schmendeler said:

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Dude is legit off his rocker

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I wish the Vatican had a Seal Team 6 that could pull a Maduro on Trump and extradite him to Rome for trial.

Is he trying to lose both houses of Congress on purpose

J.D. Vance, whose new book is about his conversion to Catholicism, when asked about Trump's anti-Pope rant and Trump-as-Jesus pic: pic.twitter.com/kUIOILuYWb

— James Urbaniak (@JamesUrbaniak) April 13, 2026

Lmao

This is beyond shameful and blasphemous from Trump

The Internet is forever though...

Donald Trump has deleted his Truth Social post depicting himself as Jesus Christ following backlash pic.twitter.com/LzjL6rHi5v

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 13, 2026

And lame excuse...

REPORTER: Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ?

TRUMP: I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor https://t.co/TbQ4aGh4Gj pic.twitter.com/baoOMlqnu9

— RT (@RT_com) April 13, 2026

He thinks his followers are idiots

Donny acting like a desperate, wounded animal right now.

"Pope Leo is weak on crime" is a statement that I will remember for my entire life.

عالی جناب پاپ لئون چهاردهم (@Pontifex) به نمایندگی از ملت بزرگ ایران توهین به جنابعالی را محکوم می‌کنم و اعلام میدارم هتک حرمت عیسی (ع)، پیامبر صلح و برادری برای هیچ آزاده‌ای قابل قبول نیست. از الله برای شما سربلندی آرزو میکنم. https://t.co/9ZLi54FjKn

— Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) April 13, 2026

Translated: Your Excellency Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex), on behalf of the great nation of Iran, I condemn the insult to Your Excellency and declare that the desecration of Jesus (peace be upon him), the Prophet of peace and brotherhood, is unacceptable to any free person. I wish glory for you from Allah.