Relations between the U.S. and the Catholic Church have not been the same since January, when senior U.S. defense officials shared an abrasive message with a Vatican official.
Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for a bitter lecture.
“The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
American catholicism has been on the verge of schism for years. The anti woke side hates Leo, the other side is proud of him, but were also proud of Francis. They (we at the time) were proud to have a pope from our hemisphere and one intent on reform and fighting the far right faction. It’s hard for American Catholics of any stripe to be proud for the past few years given the archbishop being excommunicated over schismatism and the fact that that’s not even close to resolved.