Senior Pentagon officials reportedly summoned Pope Leo XIV’s ambassador to a closed-door meeting in January 2026, as tensions grew with the first American-born pope.
According to reports by The Free Press and The Letters from Leo, US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby and other officials confronted Cardinal Christophe Pierre following the pope’s “State of the World” address.
In that speech, Pope Leo criticized “diplomacy based on force,” “imperialist occupation,” and the pursuit of global dominance.
During the meeting, Colby and his colleagues allegedly told the cardinal, "America has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side."
The alleged incident is said to have contributed to the collapse of plans for a papal visit to the United States during the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations, according to the reports.
