American-born Pope Leo may not visit US while Trump is president after diplomat meeting disaster: report

[BumRushDaShow]

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 Vatican’s 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 Leo’s 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]

1. The US military threatening to kill or caputre you, is not a welcoming sign.

Shame on the pentagon.
Shame shame shame.

[sop]

2. Trump's veiled threat is all the more reason Pope Leo should visit the U.S.

[rampartd]

3. trump is impressed by crowd size

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]

6. That was amazing. NT

[displacedvermoter]

9. Unless he doesn't feel safe here?

[rampartd]

11. would trump put a tomohawk through the roof of the Sistine chapel to get leo?

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]

13. There are very crazy Latin Massers who

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]

18. Silly people, we all know that Chump is the real Anti-Christ

[rampartd]

22. in the heat of actual armed conflict

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]

28. Would the Pope Mobile fit in the Oval Office?

I'm not Catholic, but I like this guy.

[niyad]

15. Yes, let's give the icestapo easy, large hunting grounds. We are not

living in the time you referenced.

[niyad]

14. So Leo should capitulate, bow to krasnov? Because that is exactly what

a visit now, after his statement, would look like.

[ananda]

27. Strongly disagree.

Trump clearly wants to move the Vatican to the USA.

[maxsolomon]

29. Come to the US and snub MFer. Don't go to DC, NYC, Miami.

Go where the Catholics are: Comiskey Park. LA, where the Latinos are.

Or go to Mexican Border towns: Tijuana, Mexicali, Juarez.

[electric_blue68]

33. Wait... Why are you dissing NYC? Plenty of Hispanics, Latinos, and Mexicans live here.

[maxsolomon]

36. Because Trump lives there. Or did. Melania lives there.

I just meant don't go anywhere he is.

[electric_blue68]

37. Uhh...so? NYC is a more Democratic blue city....

Need, and appreciate visitors (in general).

[FarPoint]

4. tRump and company using the Pope distration with outrage as goal

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]

5. PLEO

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]

19. Any statement the Pope makes will be of a religious and non-political nature

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]

7. The Pentagon Threatened Pope Leo XIV's Ambassador With the Avignon Papacy

[UPDATE at 4:33 PM EDT: Letters from Leo can now independently confirm The Free Press report that the meeting took place — and that some Vatican officials were so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that they shelved plans for Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States later this year.

Other officials in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s 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 Leo’s 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” — Trump’s update of Monroe, asserting unchallenged American dominion over the Western Hemisphere.

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/the-pentagon-threatened-pope-leo

[niyad]

16. "reached for a 14th century weapon. ." my heart almost stopped. Surely

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. "The Pentagon requesting a meeting with a Vatican official is "unprecedented," according to the report."

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]

10. Remember that DOD is now headed by a faux Christian zealot

Seeing this sort of thing on this scale in "modern" times is startling and troubling.

[rampartd]

12. 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.

[JBTaurus83]

17. It will be interesting to see if there is a split in the church

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 doesn’t seem to be much in common between the two sides anymore.

[FakeNoose]

20. It's the Opus Dei faction that has caused most of the trouble

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]

23. I agree.

I come from a mixed background, my dad’s side of the family Irish Catholic and my mother’s 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. She’s 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. I’ve found most lay Catholics to be pretty easy going and even liberal. It’s this vocal crowd of right wing nuts that really does them no good whatsoever.

[displacedvermoter]

24. I believe Francis already started efforts against Opus Dei

[FakeNoose]

25. Maybe you saw this posted on DU the other day?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=426488

"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]

26. National Catholic Reporter 6/25

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

[JBTaurus83]

31. It would be in the best interest of the Church

To get ahead of the story, if this cult really is something like a Satanic cult inside of their church.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. There always has been a split in the Catholic Church

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

[electric_blue68]

34. Ah! Well... soon, ta ta, Cardinal Dolan!

👍

[bmichaelh]

30. Any assurances that Trump makes would be meaningless

Trump is a known liar and says one thing one minute and another one thing another minute.

[kimbutgar]

32. I hope the King of England cancels his visit also !

The King will destroy his reputation even more in England after meeting with the insane POTUS who is aiming to get us into WW3

[valleyrogue]

35. I am still reeling over that report.

Hegseth and Colby should have been arrested over this.

And of course Trump.