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It turns out Greenland/Denmark and Canada aren't the only friendly countries that the US has been threatening, the Vatican's ambassador to the US (according to The Free Press and Letters from Leo a Catholic focused blog) was given both explicit and coded threats of military force against the Holy See.
JD Vance, a Catholic himself, has done a pretty rare thing for the Trump admin and said they're gonna get to the bottom of it first, instead of immediately dismissing it as fake news.. This doesn't confirm it as real, but that it wasn't immediately denied and dismissed like the typical M.O. is quite interesting.
This could help explain why Pope Leo has felt so emboldened to speak up against Trump's war efforts in Iran, cause the administration officials have been warmongering against them behind the scenes. The chance that the admin actually pulls the trigger and attacks the Vatican is obviously low, but that they keep threatening many of our allies both publically and privately seems quite concerning to me. It also opens up a new thing to consider, how many other allies are they threatening behind closed doors too?
It actually makes it exponentially more likely that it's fake in my view: if it actually happened and the administration knew, they would obviously just deny it. The fact that it seems to have caught the White House off guard, i.e. Vance not having heard of it previous to the story breaking, makes it more likely to be a fabrication since they didn't have a planned response for it.
The very interaction recounted in the article is somewhat hard to believe - why was this meeting necessary? The Pentagon wants to apply pressure on the Vatican to do what, exactly? Publicly proclaim they're abandoning the basic anti-war messaging they've held on to consistently for a century and will now be picking sides in armed conflicts? Really?
The Pentagon was issuing explicit threats of military violence against the Vatican, which is a tiny complex of buildings and gardens located inside Italy's capital, and was referencing the Avignon Papacy in doing so? Really?
This current administration is excellent at lastingly damaging relations with allies for little gain, but the idea that they would suggest using military force against a peaceful, greying religious order that both enjoys excellent standing amongst world leaders all while really not having any meaningful practical influence on world affairs seems laughable. I seriously doubt anyone in the Pentagon gives a fuck about what the Vatican says against their military operations, since they never gave a fuck in the past, nor ever felt a negative consequence coming from the Vatican for having done so.
Pope Leo has said the exact same things every Pope in recent history has said about non-defensive wars waged without a meaningful cassus belli - that they condemn them wholesale, call for ceasefires and diplomacy, and remind everyone that being a Christian means acting from love and forgiveness. Virtually nothing Pope Leo has said or done represents a shift or sharpening of that basic Church doctrine.
John Paul the IInd, essentially a proactive right-wing culture warrior Pope, immediately condemned the Iraq War and called it a crime. This is not special or particular, it's a basic requirement of being the Head of Christendom.
I agree the story sounds sketchy. The best case I can make of it is the view that since Leo is an American, he should be using the influence of the papacy and the Church to back America and American interests. That's not going to fly, but I can see why someone might try and make the effort.
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