According to a report in The Free Press by Mattia Ferrarsi, Elbridge Colby, the thuggish Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, called the Papal Nuncico in Washington, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, to the Pentagon in mid-January for a “conversation.” The meeting came after the Pope’s speech on January 9, in which he warned about “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force,” and that “war is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading.”
These comments had made War Secretary Pete Hegseth go “bonkers,” the Free Press reported, given his attempts to cast the U.S.-Israeli aggression against Iran as a “holy war.” Colby is said to have told Pierre: “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.” Another Pentagon official had referred to the Avignon papacy, when the papacy had been divided as a result of a political fight between Rome and the French king. Seven different popes resided in Avignon between 1306 and 1376 under the influence of the French king. The last of these, Gregory XI, decided to move back to Rome. The Avignon reference was also seen as a threat to the Pope.
Pope Leo had reportedly intended previously to travel to the United States for the July 4 celebration of the 250th anniversary, but has since decided to instead visit the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa that day, where many of the African immigrants have found temporary refuge. The decision to not go to the U.S. may well have been taken for both security and philosophical reasons.
The Pope, however, is not exactly backing down in the face of Trump’s threats. It is noteworthy that the threat reportedly delivered by Colby occurred back in January. After that, the Pope stated in a Palm Sunday address on March 29: “Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war…. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” Both Hegseth and Trump clearly felt alluded to by those remarks.
And perhaps most dramatically, the Pope stated on April 7, after Trump’s demented call to wipe out the entire Iranian civilization: “Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran. And this is truly unacceptable! There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole, in its entirety…. I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved, to contact the authorities— political leaders, congressmen—to ask them, to tell them, to work for peace and to reject war always.”
