International

Ex-diplomat ranks US-Vatican tensions as ‘maybe a 23’ on a 1-10 scale of unusual

Comments:

by Ryan Mancini - 04/11/26 5:13 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Ryan Mancini - 04/11/26 5:13 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Former diplomat Richard Haass on Saturday said that tensions between the U.S. and the Vatican have reached a 23 out of a 1-to-10 scale.

“Morning Joe Weekend” co-host Willie Geist asked Haass how unusual a reported threat from the Pentagon to the Vatican’s former diplomat was during a meeting in January.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, maybe 23?” Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, said with a laugh. “I mean, of all all the fights to pick. So we give Russia a free pass. We let Iran do half the stuff it’s doing. We attack Europe and so forth. I go around the world –– we give China a free pass. And who do we go after? We go after our democratic allies, and then we go after the Catholic church.”

“That’s our priorities for who we want to pick fights with?” he added.

The Free Press, citing unnamed sources, reported on Monday that the Pentagon’s policy office head, Elbridge Colby, met with Cardinal Christophe Pierre on Jan. 22 and warned the then-envoy that the U.S. military has “the power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”

Colby allegedly raised the threat of the “Avignon Papacy,” when France’s King Philip IV captured the pope and subsequent popes resided in Avignon instead of Rome from 1309 to 1376.

The Pentagon called the story “grossly false and distorted,” stating that the meeting was “cordial” and covered several topics, including “the logic of the U.S. National Security Strategy, Europe, Africa, Latin America and other topics.”

It added that Colby’s meeting with Pierre was “substantive, respectful and professional,” and that Pierre “expressed his appreciation for the outreach and both sides looked forward to continued open and respectful dialogue.”

Pierre called the reporting of the meeting “‘fabrications’ that were ‘just invented,'” according to the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch.

Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, also denied The Free Press’s reporting.

“The account offered by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way,”Bruni said, noting that the meeting was part of the “Pontifical Representative’s regular duties and provided an opportunity for an exchange of views on matters of mutual interest.”

Tensions between the Vatican and the U.S. have escalated after Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S. citizen elected to the papacy, warned against the growing use of military deployment across the globe.

Leo called for dialogue between the U.S. and Venezuela one month before U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, urging against the threat to remove Maduro from power. The pope then called for Venezuelan independence after Maduro’s capture.

The Vatican declined to join the Gaza Board of Peace, designed to oversee the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and led by President Trump. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in February that there were “certain critical issues that should be resolved,” including that “it should above all be the [United Nations] that manages these crisis situations.”

The pope also condemned Trump’s threat that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” on Tuesday as “truly unacceptable.”

“There are certainly issues ⁠here of international law, but even more than that, it is a moral question for the good of the [world’s] people,” Leo told reporters, according to Reuters.

Add as preferred source on Google