American-born Pope Leo may not visit US while Trump is president after diplomat meeting disaster: report
Source: The Independent
Wednesday 08 April 2026 17:44 EDT
Pope Leo XIV may not return to the U.S. while President Donald Trump remains in office, according to a report citing a contentious meeting between a Catholic official and the Pentagon.
The Pope, an American, has been vocal in his criticism of Trump's policies, particularly when it comes to immigration and war. The Catholic leader has condemned the war in Iran and said that the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants has been "extremely disrespectful."
On Monday, The Free Press reported that in the wake of the Pope's annual address to the Vaticans diplomatic corps in January, in which he criticized states seeking conflict around the globe, the Department of Defense invited Cardinal Christophe Pierre for a meeting. At the time, Pierre was serving as Pope Leos personal envoy to the United States.
The Pentagon requesting a meeting with a Vatican official is "unprecedented," according to the report. According to Vatican and U.S. officials who were briefed on the meeting and spoke to the publication, the Pentagon criticized the Pope's statements in January, interpreting them as hostile attacks on Trump's policies.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/pope-leo-visit-us-trump-president-b2954080.html
Irish_Dem
(81,527 posts)Shame on the pentagon.
Shame shame shame.
sop
(18,732 posts)rampartd
(4,691 posts)i'm remembering the crowd when john paul ii came to new orleans. leo would be like a rock star.
yea. the pope should come.
Tom Dyer
(373 posts)displacedvermoter
(4,628 posts)rampartd
(4,691 posts)i don't think michaelangelo's masterpiece would stop him.
but no, the usa is full of rando lunatics on a mission from q anon.
ok, the pope will not meet trump because it bestows the sort of legitimacy that papal blessing conferred to charlemange or any number of despots from the dark ages.
displacedvermoter
(4,628 posts)might just do him in. I believe that. There are also crazy fundamentalist Christians who have always believed that the Pope -- whichever Pope -- is the Anti Christ, or a minister of the Devil. And now, apparently, the Defense Department has threatened him, and the Papacy.
I would stay the hell away, if I was him.
FakeNoose
(41,769 posts)rampartd
(4,691 posts)not enough about the christian nationalists.
military leaders are getting all apocalyptic in their messages to the troops. the religious aspects, playing up to the left behind raptured evangelicals.............
Bayard
(29,821 posts)I'm not Catholic, but I like this guy.
niyad
(132,688 posts)living in the time you referenced.
niyad
(132,688 posts)a visit now, after his statement, would look like.
ananda
(35,215 posts)Trump clearly wants to move the Vatican to the USA.
FarPoint
(14,807 posts)tRump will up the annie to say altering or removing the Catholic Churches tax free status....it's always about the money....
That is my guess....
OhioBack2Blue
(126 posts)Should immediately make a public statement via Zoom or YouTube, during Sunday masses at all Catholic Churches in the US.
That this has not happened yet is already complicity.
FakeNoose
(41,769 posts)That's how the Pope is, whether he's born in the US or anywhere else.
I don't blame Pope Leo for not wanting to feed into Chump's huge need for popular approval. Chump will say anything - ANYTHING! - to get media headlines and approval from the MAGAs.
The Pope can't win so why should he play along?
muriel_volestrangler
(106,273 posts)Other officials in the Vatican saw the Pentagons reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.]
...
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.
...
What enraged them most was Leos declaration that a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.
The Pentagon read that sentence as a frontal challenge to the so-called Donroe Doctrine Trumps update of Monroe, asserting unchallenged American dominion over the Western Hemisphere.
https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/the-pentagon-threatened-pope-leo
niyad
(132,688 posts)not??? And, even reading the rest of that sentence, with the blatant threat of the Avignon Papacy, did not quell my dread. Simply because these people are so insane, so bloated on their sense of superiority that I could see one of them actually threatening someone with a weapon.
Prairie Gates
(8,242 posts)I think we need to hear more about how this unfolded. Surely the Ambassador to the Holy See wasn't summoned to the Pentagon as a matter of state, as that would have to be handled by the State Department. What I would suspect is the case is that the Ambassador was brought in under false pretenses, probably having to do with pastoral matters on chaplainship.
If that's the case, the Undersecretary and everybody else involved needs to be fired yesterday, and Li'l Marco should be absolutely reaming Whiskey Pete Hegseth until it happens. There's no legitimate scenario in which the Department of Defense "summons" a standing ambassador to discuss ambassadorial matters. Period.
More here: https://democraticunderground.com/100221159304
BumRushDaShow
(170,141 posts)Seeing this sort of thing on this scale in "modern" times is startling and troubling.
rampartd
(4,691 posts)it bestows the sort of legitimacy that papal blessing conferred to charlemange or any number of despots from the dark ages.
JBTaurus83
(1,474 posts)The right wing nut faction has nothing in common with the past two popes. The Vatican is continuing to move forward on giving women more positions of power, softening on glbt issues, and crafting a good environmental, anti-war and economic justice message. There doesnt seem to be much in common between the two sides anymore.
FakeNoose
(41,769 posts)They are an extremely conservative, secretive, and dangerous group. Opus Dei needs to be excised from the Catholic Church and shut down permanently. I hope Pope Leo is paying attention.
JBTaurus83
(1,474 posts)I come from a mixed background, my dads side of the family Irish Catholic and my mothers side Protestant. It did cause a bit of friction back in the day, I am not a member of any specific religion, but, I am around Catholicism a lot.
My spouse is Costa Rican from a Catholic family and we attend many events at our nieces Catholic school. Shes very involved in music and sports. The priest is very friendly and never discusses right wing issues at masses.
Our niece is a lesbian and many kids at her school are gay, bi or lesbian. The teachers who are mostly nuns know this and they have never said anything negative or unsupportive to the students.
I have no issue helping out with their charity events and such. Ive found most lay Catholics to be pretty easy going and even liberal. Its this vocal crowd of right wing nuts that really does them no good whatsoever.
displacedvermoter
(4,628 posts)FakeNoose
(41,769 posts)"I spent years investigating Opus Dei, a Catholic group accused of a vast conspiracy of abuse. Then Pope Leo asked to meet me."
It's an interview with Gareth Gore, the guy who wrote a book about Opus Dei a few years ago. Very interesting! So Gareth Gore believes that Opus Dei is involved in human trafficking and sexual slavery of girls and young women, plus other nasty right-wing activities.
displacedvermoter
(4,628 posts)Reported Opus Dei chancellor no longer a bishop (reducing clout), required to submit to more rigid supervision and reporting, downgrade to international role. More changes involving ideology and catechism.
Francis stunned people with these changes
BumRushDaShow
(170,141 posts)The rightwing loons versus everyone else. Pope Francis started replacing RW Cardinals with more center/left ones and Leo has started doing the same (the latest being replacing the retiring NY RW prelate - Cardinal Timothy Dolan, with Bishop Ronald Hicks from IL - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143584528