This ridiculous story assumes that the Papal Nuncio would be “summoned” by someone at the Pentagon, rather than “summoned” by Marco Rubio, our Catholic Secretary of State. Then that he was subjected to a bitter diatribe by some unnamed person at the Pentagon and that the Pope was threatened with the fate of Dante’s least favorite Pope, Boniface VIII. Most Catholics know nothing about Boniface VIII. Most priests, if asked about him, would be trying to remember the name from their halcyon days at seminary.
Supposedly the meeting occurred with Undersecretary of Defense, Elbridge Colby, a Catholic and grandson of Director of the CIA William Colby, and that it was another, unnamed, official present who threatened the Pope with a second Babylonian Captivity. I think either the Cardinal, or someone on his staff, has a vivid imagination. I would note that Cardinal Pierre is no longer Nuncio, he having retired after reaching age 80, and Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia is now nuncio to the United States.
Hale ran Catholics for Harris back in 2024 and in 2016 he was Executive Director of “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good” a Soros funded astro turf group. This story stinks of a Leftist political hit job.
I first saw this yesterday and was immediately suspicious since (at least from what I read) there were no quotes offered but rather ‘reports,’ and the thoughts of ‘some officials,’ which always raises red flags for me.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think that Donald Trump or anyone in the Pentegon gives a hoot about what heterodox Pope Leo XIV says to the news media or on social media concerning the war in Iran. The one thing that will silence the Pope is the withholding of donations to anything that either the USCCB or the Vatican wants funded. Indeed, I would wager that conservative American Catholics (not the crazied antisemitic radical pseudo-traditionalists) are among the biggest donors, so alienating them will have its predictable impact. The money will talk loudly enough. However, maybe some rich liberal tycoon like George Soros will step in and prop up an aging leftist NGO wearing the skin of the Institutional Catholic Church as a disguse.
Perhaps we are re-living the trials and tribulations of the ancient Arian heresy that had almost swept orthodoxy away in the 4th century AD, except today the heresy afflicting the Church is modernism: liberal progressivism, environmentalism, socialism masqueraded as social justice, illegal immigration masqueraded as charity for the outcast, LGBTQ acceptance masqueraded as loving inclusivity, etc. ad nauseam.
Pope Leo XIV finds time to condemn Trump for the War in Iran, but he refuses to confront Governor Pritzker on his pro-abortion position, and Father James Martin on his pro-homosexuality program. That’s all I need to know about the Institutional Church. I believe Leo XIV is validly Pope, but he and his predecessor are surely God’s punishment for our complacency and contentment.
The Avignon affair should be an object lesson to a Pontiff of the quagmire one gets into when involvement in political activities becomes a matter of concentrated attention. The example of Alexander VI should have been enough of a caution to last for at least a millenia. LQC is quite correct about all the political musings that keep coming from the mouths of clerics from the top down.
Donald-
I don’t think there’s much “learning from history” going on in the Vatican in the 21st Century. Especially pre V2 history.
Just saw that the US ambassador to the Holy See (Brian Burch) spoke to Cardinal Pierre today, and, according to Burch, Pierre said the reports from the Free Press were “fabricated” and “just invented.”
https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/report-alleges-pentagon-threatened-us-nuncio-over-popes-remarks-us-officials-dispute-claim
Screencap from Austin Ruse’s account on Substack, as I’m not on X.