By Kate Scanlon
OSV News
WASHINGTON — The Holy See Press Office issued a statement April 10 disputing a report by The Free Press several days earlier that the Vatican’s top diplomat in the U.S. was brought to the Pentagon in January for a “bitter lecture” about comments from Pope Leo XIV that some U.S. defense officials perceived as criticism of the Trump administration.
“The narrative offered by some media outlets about this meeting is completely untrue,” the Vatican press office statement said.
It said that Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the former papal ambassador to the U.S., “confirmed” that his Jan. 22 meeting with Eldridge Colby, U.S. undersecretary of war for policy, at the Pentagon “was part of the Papal Representative’s regular mission and provided the opportunity for an exchange of views on matters of mutual interest.”
A day earlier, both the U.S. War Department, a moniker for the Department of Defense, and Vatican Embassy in Washington issued written statements to OSV News disputing The Free Press’s characterization of the meeting between Colby and Cardinal Pierre, who retired from the post in March after turning 80.
According to the April 6 report by The Free Press, “Vatican officials briefed on the meeting, who spoke with The Free Press on the condition of anonymity, described it as a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”
The Department of Defense official told OSV News that the report’s “characterization of the meeting is highly exaggerated and distorted.”
The Vatican Embassy did not shed light on the tone of the meeting or offer specifics about what was discussed there with U.S. officials, but its statement emphasized such meetings are “a standard practice” and it is “grateful for the opportunities to meet and dialogue with government officials and others in Washington to discuss areas of mutual concern.”
The Free Press reported that after Pope Leo’s Jan. 9 speech to members of the diplomatic corps, Colby summoned Cardinal Pierre to the Pentagon. The pontiff had condemned zeal for war and raised alarm that “the principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”