(RNS) — A peculiar meeting at the Pentagon between apostolic nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who serves as Pope Leo XIV’s U.S. representative, and a senior Department of Defense official has led to a flurry of speculation and concern about the relationship between the Pentagon and the Vatican.
The January meeting was first reported by The Free Press earlier this week, which claimed Pentagon officials warned the Vatican “the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants” and the Catholic Church should take its side. Within hours, the report sparked statements from U.S. and Vatican officials, with varying accounts and interpretations of the meeting emerging over the next day as a wave of discourse erupted among Vatican-watchers and other Catholics.
“It was like inviting a vegetarian to a barbecue,” papal biographer Massimo Faggioli, a professor of ecclesiology at Trinity College Dublin, told RNS on Thursday (April 9). “That is the building where the orders to wage war come from, and that is by itself not a natural place to have a meeting with a representative of a global organization like the Catholic Church, which is known for efforts to stop wars.”
In a statement sent to RNS on Wednesday, the Department of Defense confirmed the meeting occurred but disputed the Free Press’ assessment of what transpired, calling the story highly “exaggerated and distorted.” The Defense Department also wrote on X that Elbridge Colby, under secretary of war for policy, who reports to Secretary Pet …
