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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Leo used the address to denounce a world ruled by “a diplomacy based on force” and “zeal for war.”

In January, behind closed doors at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States — and delivered a lecture.

America, Colby and his colleagues told the cardinal, has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.

As tempers rose, one U.S. official reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the Avignon Papacy, the period when the French Crown used military force to bend the bishop of Rome to its will.

That scene, broken this week by Mattia Ferraresi in an extraordinary piece of journalism for The Free Press, may be the most remarkable moment in the long and knotted history of the American republic’s relationship with the Catholic Church.

In the speech that enraged Pete Hegseth and top Pentagon officials, Pope Leo XIV said: “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.”

“War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading.

“The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”

Pete Hegseth’s pastor and mentor says the United States should ban public Masses, Marian processions, and Corpus Christi devotions.

Hegseth invited the anti-Catholic preacher to lead a prayer service at the Pentagon on February 14.

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/pete-hegseths-pastor-wants-to-ban

For the first time in modern history, the Pentagon offered no Good Friday services for Catholics this year.

While Catholics don't celebrate Mass on Good Friday, they do venerate the cross of Jesus Christ and receive the Eucharist.

Earlier this year, Pete Hegseth invited his pastor to speak at the Pentagon. That pastor has called for banning public expressions of Catholicism in the United States.

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/trump-vance-white-house-escalates

Here is an Archive link with the full article

https://archive.ph/H3cfR

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[-] regul@hexbear.net 93 points 1 week ago

I would love there to be a Washington Anti-Pope to counter the Bishop of Rome who was born in Chicago.

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 53 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Deep Dish Pope vs NYC Style AntiPope

[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 22 points 1 week ago

Is dish deep good? Never had it but have heard all about it

[-] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 26 points 1 week ago

If you're a toppings person vs. a crust person, deep dish is great

Personally, I prefer Detroit style or bar pie style

[-] TrashGoblin@hexbear.net 18 points 1 week ago

It is a good dinner, but it is not pizza.

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[-] fox@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

Do you like the sauce and cheese part of the pizza the most? Deep dish is basically an Italian seasoning tomato & cheese pie.

[-] Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago

Only in Chicago in my experience.

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[-] Beaver@hexbear.net 40 points 1 week ago
[-] KurtVonnegut@hexbear.net 39 points 1 week ago

Congratulations J.D. Vance, you are now Pope Sofa, First of his Name.

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[-] UmbraVivi@hexbear.net 76 points 1 week ago

This seems so idiotic? Why the hell would you make an enemy of the Pope? Isn't the Catholic church a major pillar of Western soft power?

[-] oliveoil@hexbear.net 50 points 1 week ago

Not when they criticize you.

[-] Lussy@hexbear.net 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I mean, the pope lives in an entirely different country, is the fucking pope and yet…he hasn’t called this out a single time?

Why should Trump be scared of anyone?

[-] duderium@hexbear.net 66 points 1 week ago

19 84 you’re in 1309 motherfucker

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 64 points 1 week ago

UPDATE: Letters from Leo can now independently confirm that the meeting took place — and that the Vatican was so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that Pope Leo XIV shelved plans to visit the United States later this year.

Many in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.

https://x.com/ChristopherHale/status/2041959904823366074

[-] blobjim@hexbear.net 61 points 1 week ago

“The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”

The genre of statement where you act oblivious to the last 80 years of world history sucks so much.

I just watched Soundtrack to a Coup d'etat last night and there were many instances of people describing being blackmailed, threatened ("arm-twisted"), and bribed by the US, or US officials themselves describing it using euphemisms.

And we see this kind of rhetoric about things being at a "new low" or whatever even in left-wing spaces where people really should know better.

[-] Des@hexbear.net 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

swiss guard armory with guns pikes and 15th century armor

don't make the Pope get his army to break out the idiosyncratic firepower. only military unit on earth that could be used as an effective time traveling army

[-] Speaker@hexbear.net 32 points 1 week ago

HALBErD stands for High Altitude Laser Beam for Erasing Dicks

[-] fox@hexbear.net 18 points 1 week ago

Haeresim Auxilio Lucis Beatae Everrit Radiis Divinatis

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[-] oliveoil@hexbear.net 41 points 1 week ago

Shia Catholicism merger when?

[-] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 17 points 1 week ago

Okay, is the real? And I realize I know nothing about Islamic prophecy.

[-] oliveoil@hexbear.net 25 points 1 week ago

Apparently Shia prophecy involves Jesus returning with the Mahdi.

This image is from Easter. I'm pretty sure it's real.

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[-] BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net 35 points 1 week ago

Trump nuke the pope :timmy-pray:

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 40 points 1 week ago

He is just going to give him more aura

Atom-bombed Mary

Atom-bombed Mary (Japanese: 被爆のマリア, Hepburn: Hibaku no Maria), also known as Our Lady of Nagasaki or the Virgin of Nagasaki, is the head from a wooden statue of Mary, mother of Jesus from a cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan. The statue survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945, but was severely damaged as a result of the explosion

[-] 30_to_50_Feral_PAWGs@hexbear.net 26 points 1 week ago

Untapped emoji potential for the Catholic Posadist demographic

[-] BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net 23 points 1 week ago

severely damaged

I'll take what I can get :shrug-outta-hecks:

[-] Speaker@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago

I can fix her 😤

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago

Great drag name potential

[-] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 35 points 1 week ago

Please install antipope, the butthurt will be delicious

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago

I'm holding out for the church to excommunicate some officials first. Then antipope.

[-] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 31 points 1 week ago

Earlier this year, Pete Hegseth invited his pastor to speak at the Pentagon. That pastor has called for banning public expressions of Catholicism in the United States.

I actually can't believe they're putting Catholics on the same level as gay people

[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 week ago

Be pretty funny if there's a legal challenge that goes to the SCOTUS. Last time I looked, 7 of the 9 justices were Catholic. It may be down to 6 now but it's still a lot.

[-] bunnossin@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

Real dying empire hours

[-] Llituro@hexbear.net 29 points 1 week ago

if you're the pope, imagine letting yourself get threatened like that. excommunications should genuinely make a comeback. but it's like, are you God's emissary on earth or not man? because if so, this can only be understood as catholics attempting to threaten God with the u.s. military. what else would the pope have to fear from a man?

[-] GoodGuyWithACat@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago

Technically I don't think Trump can get excommunicated because he's not Catholic.

jd vance should absolutely be excommunicated though

[-] Llituro@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago

no, but jd can be

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[-] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 28 points 1 week ago

I love this duel-allegiance rhetoric. If anyone, any American, can be said to not have duel-allegiance, or not have any remaining allegiance to their birth country, it’s the fucking pope.

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[-] Civility@hexbear.net 24 points 1 week ago
[-] plinky@hexbear.net 21 points 1 week ago

Drone strike pope

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 20 points 1 week ago

Threatening the head of the most powerful religious organisation in the world seems like a very bad plan for maintaining global influence.

[-] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago
[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Invade the Vatican? Yeah me too it would be devastating for the US internationally. Quite possibly the worst thing for the american image I can think of. The USian state would be a pariah to 1.4 billion catholics for the next 70 years at least while they die off. More if you count sympathetic christians from other branches. And even more when you count agnostic people who like listening to the pope a couple times a year.

[-] XxFemboy_Stalin_420_69xX@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined

LIB

[-] bunnossin@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

The principle established after the Second World War, which established the power of the United States to violate the borders of other nations, has been completely undermined.

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this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
186 points (99.5% liked)

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