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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   15885 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026

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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.

In January, behind closed doors at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States — and delivered a lecture.

“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.

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 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.

What's the source of this story? I mean, who are the links in the chain between Christopher Hale (the blogger you link to) and the Papal Ambassador? And how many links are there? The blog post only makes a vague reference to "sources."

The reason I ask is that for many years now, there is been a pattern where (1) in real life or online, someone makes a claim which puts the Trump Administration in a bad light; (2) I scrutinize the claim; and (3) it turns out to be some combination of baseless, unsupported by any evidence, based on wild twistings of peoples' words, or simply fabricated.

This claim has the same sort of feel to it and therefore I am extremely skeptical.

What's the source of this story? I mean, who are the links in the chain between Christopher Hale (the blogger you link to) and the Papal Ambassador? And how many links are there? The blog post only makes a vague reference to "sources."

Hmm let's see what I wrote again and what you quoted.

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.

You literally had your answer right there, and even if you didn't notice that, and just read Letters from Leo up to the paywall, that post also links The Free Press article twice, and mentions it four different times up to that point.

IDK how you could have missed this.

Hmm let's see what I wrote again and what you quoted.

Ok, let's.

You literally had your answer right there, and even if you didn't notice that, and just read Letters from Leo up to the paywall, that post also links The Free Press article twice, and mentions it four different times up to that point.

Somehow I didn't notice that those were links. But in any event, my question essentially stands:

What is the chain between the Papal Ambassador and Mattia Ferraresi? Was it a direct interview? If not, who was between them and how many steps were there?

IDK how you could have missed this.

No need to get snippy, it's a reasonable question.

What's the chain between the Papal Ambassador and Mattia Ferraresi? Was it a direct interview? If not, who was between them and how many steps were there?

No need to get snippy, it's a reasonable question.

What's the chain between the Papal Ambassador and Mattia Ferraresi?

That is a different question than what you asked. Similar, but not the same. The one you had actually asked was answered simply by reading what was written multiple times.

What's the chain between the Papal Ambassador and Mattia Ferraresi? Was it a direct interview? If not, who was between them and how many steps were there?

The main information we have is in the article. Perhaps Ferraresi and the rest of the TFP team have shared more details elsewhere, but I'll leave that to you to scour their social media if you want to know.

Do you, personally, believe the event in question happened? What evidence leads you to your conclusion? Is your assessment of that evidence derived from general principles, or is this a case of any stick being sufficient to beat a dog?

Which alleged event do you think has a stronger evidentiary basis: Trump's underlings threatening the Vatican, or Biden raping Tara Reade?

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