April 10 2026, 08:15 
Shortly after Pope Leo XIV delivered a January 9 speech which he criticized “diplomacy based on force” and said, “War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading,” the Pentagon reportedly sent the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Jaunuary 22 meeting where U.S. officials suggested that the U.S. military could retaliate against Vatican City, the pope’s residence, The Free Press reported.
A Pentagon official allegedly told Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, that the U.S. military has the “power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” the media outlet reported, citing unnamed sources. The Pentagon denied the report, calling it “grossly false and distorted.”
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Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See (the central government and supreme authority of the Roman Catholic Church), said that, in a Thursday conversation, Pierre called The Free Press‘ report “just invented … fabrications.”
Burch wrote on X, “Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I was likewise not surprised when His Eminence acknowledged there were no threats of any kind in the meeting. ‘It was a frank and cordial meeting that took place two months ago.’ … It’s regrettable that some journalists and online agitators chose to exploit a routine meeting to sow division between the Holy See and the United States.”
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The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See concurred with Burch, saying, “Deliberate misrepresentation of these routine meetings sows unfounded division and misunderstanding. Our relationship remains strong and productive.”
The Free Press was founded by transphobic lesbian journalist Bari Weiss. She now serves as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
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