Vatican City.
The Vatican came out this Friday to calm the rumors of recent days about an alleged disagreement with the United States of donald trumpafter learning of a meeting at the Pentagon with a diplomat from the Holy See.
The cause of the controversy was a meeting on January 22 at the Pentagon between the then nuncio (Vatican ambassador) to the United States, French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, and the Undersecretary of War, Elbridge Colby.
These days some media have been pointing out that at that meeting some disagreements emerged between the Trump Administration and the Vatican. Leo XIVfirst American pope in history.
A cardinal in the Pentagon
Specifically, according to this information, Colby had expressed Washington’s irritation at some of the pontiff’s statements, such as his repeated defense of multilateralism, and that he had come to evoke the ‘Avignon papacy’, the period of the 14th century in which the Roman church ended up under the rule of the French Crown.
Given the commotion, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, assured this Friday in a statement that that meeting “falls within the normal mission of the pontifical representative” and that it “allowed an exchange of opinions on issues of mutual interest.”
“The narrative offered by some media outlets about that meeting does not correspond at all to the truth,” he concluded.
On the other hand, the American ambassador to the Vatican, Brian Burch, explained on the X network that the cardinal has “denied” these rumors before him and that he has considered the meeting as “normal.”
Rejection of rumors
“The United States Government and our embassy meet regularly with representatives of the Holy See, including the Nuncio. The deliberate misrepresentation of these routine meetings sows division and unfounded misunderstandings. Our relationship remains solid and productive,” the diplomatic legation stated.
The ambassador has also rejected any allusion to Avignon, something that had been interpreted by the same media as a veiled threat of political control of the Vatican.
The French cardinal left his position as apostolic nuncio to the United States on March 7 for exceeding the age limit and was succeeded by the Italian archbishop Gabriele Caccia.
In this context, the Pope spoke yesterday Thursday at the Vatican with his new nuncio in Washington and, later, received a well-known figure in American politics: David Axelrod, political advisor to former Democratic President Barack Obama.
Cautious diplomacy and a criticism of Trump
In this almost first year of pontificate, although always in a very cautious tone, Leo
In his speech to the Diplomatic Corps on January 9, for example, he warned of “the weakness of multilateralism” and that “war is back in fashion.”
Furthermore, in this first Holy Week as pontiff, he has also denounced in his homilies “the dark hour” that the world is experiencing due to war, lamented “a humanity on its knees for so many examples of brutality” or labeled as “blasphemous” the rulers who “want to win by killing” or “perceive themselves as powerful when they dominate.”
But, on the other hand, Leo
Furthermore, the Chicago pontiff has already made it known that he will not travel to his native country this year, precisely when the 250th anniversary of his Declaration of Independence is commemorated.
Yes, he will travel, starting next Monday, to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea and in June to Spain. On July 4, American Independence Day, Leo XIV has announced that he will spend it on the Italian island of Lampedusa (south), the migratory gateway to Europe.
