Did DoD Goon Squad Threaten Cardinal Christophe Pierre?

An intriguing meeting between the Apostolic Nuncio and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby at the Pentagon is the subject of speculation and conflicting reports.

The National Catholic Reporter just published an analysis of a January meeting at the Pentagon between the then Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby. Initial reporting claimed that Colby made a thinly veiled threat that the Vatican could either get on board with the Pentagon’s war policy or risk a repeat of the Avignon Papacy.

For those unfamiliar with this episode: The Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) was the result of a conflict with the French crown, instigated by political instability in Rome. Philip IV of France forced the move by manipulating the election of the French Pope Clement V (1305) and directing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon.

The Italian poet, Petrarch, spent most of his early life, education, and formative adult years in Avignon during the Papacy, which he called the "Babylonian Captivity.” His family moved to the area in 1311/1312, and he later worked in clerical offices and served as a chaplain in the city. He found the luxury and corruption of the Avignon Papacy disgusting.

However, his time in the city had the happy upshot of his April 6. 1327 encounter with a young woman named Laura in the Church of Saint Clare in Avignon. She is widely believed to be Laure de Noves. Because she was married, Petrarch’s love for her remained unrequited. In the spirit of Dante admiring Beatrice from afar, Petrarch’s longing for Laura resulted in over 300 love poems known as the Canzoniere.

Sonnet 3 is the most famous.

Era il giorno ch’al sol si scoloraro
per la pietà del suo fattore i rai,
quando i’ fu’ preso, e non me ne guardai,
ché i bè vostr’occhi, donna, mi legaro.

Tempo non mi parea da far riparo
contra colpi d’Amor: però m’andai
secur, senza sospetto; onde i miei guai
nel commune dolor s’incominciaro.

Trovommi Amor del tutto disarmato
et aperta la via per gli occhi al core,
che di lagrime son fatti uscio e varco.

Però, al mio parer, non gli fu onore
ferir me di saetta in quello stato,
a voi armata non mostrar pur l’arco.

English Translation (A.S. Kline)
It was the day the sun’s ray had turned pale
with pity for its Maker, when I was taken,
and I did not defend myself, lady, because
your lovely eyes had bound me.

It did not seem to me to be the time
to take precautions against Love’s blows:
so I went on, secure, without suspicion:
whence my sorrows began in the common grief.

Love found me entirely unarmed,
and the way open through the eyes to the heart,
which had become the door and corridor of tears:

So it was not glorious, in my view, for him
to wound me with his arrow in that state,
while to you, armed, he did not even show his bow.

---

Petrarch purportedly maintained a respectful but distant relationship with Dante, though it seems to me that this sonnet was heavily influenced by the older Florentine poet.

I mention Petrarch and poetry because they strike me as a pleasant relief from the goon squad militarism of rulers like Philip IV and Donald Trump, who proclaimed in his inaugural address that a “golden age of America begins right now.”

For those interested in classical antiquity, Trump’s proclamation was reminiscent of Virgil’s claim that a new "Golden Age" of Rome was returning during his lifetime under the rule of Emperor Augustus—which inaugurated the end of the brutal “Iron Age” of civil war, and the beginning of a peaceful, prosperous era.

Watching Trump’s inaugural address, I’d never felt so hopeful.

It’s sort of funny to think of President Trump forcing something akin to a repeat of the Avignon Papacy. I wonder where he would have the Papacy relocated. Atlantic City? Las Vegas? Perhaps an entirely new development called “Trump Vatican City” in West Palm Beach, replete with “a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot.”

According to the NCR report:

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 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 April 8, 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 Pete Hegseth’s deputy, “had a substantive, respectful, and professional meeting,” with Pierre, where they discussed “issues of morality in foreign policy, the logic of the U.S. National Security Strategy, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and other topics.”

In a separate statement to RNS, the nunciature did not dispute The Free Press’ reporting, but wrote that “meetings with government officials are a standard practice for the Nuncio,” adding that “the Apostolic Nunciature is grateful for the opportunities to meet and dialogue with government officials and others in Washington to discuss areas of mutual concern.”

Late April 9, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See published a thread on X saying Pierre had spoken to Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, after the Free Press report was published. According to the thread, Pierre allegedly told Burch the media’s portrayal of the meeting “does not reflect what happened” and was “just invented to make a story.” The embassy said Pierre described the meeting as “frank, but very cordial.”

I suppose we will never know exactly what was exchanged during this intriguing meeting, but it’s clear that American-born Pope Leo XIV is not backing down from his criticism of the Iran war.

He continues to condemn the adventure as a “delusion of omnipotence” and has declared that “God does not bless any conflict.”

His key criticisms are as follows.

• “Enough of War” Campaign: In April 2026, the Pope urged leaders to stop “displaying power” and end the “idolatry of self and money” fueling the conflict.

• Direct Rebukes of Leadership: His statements are a categorical rejection of the Trump administration’s “Operation Epic [or Epstein] Fury” in Iran.

• “Hands Full of Blood”: During a Palm Sunday service, he stated that God rejects the prayers of leaders who create war.

• Opposition to Religious Justification: He has condemned the use of “Deus Vult” (God wills it) rhetoric to justify attacking Iran.

• Rejection of aerial bombardment: He has characterized aerial bombardment as an archaic regression to barbarism, a scandal that should have been banned in the 20th century.

• Condemnation of President Trump’s threats to end Iranian civilization forever (see video below).