The New ‘Avignon Papacy’? Pentagon Officials Reportedly Invoked Medieval Captivity to Threaten Vatican and Force Pope’s Support
Vatican officials interpreted the 14th century reference as a veiled threat to use military force against the Holy See
By Jim Manzon Published 09 April 2026, 10:29 AM BST
The Vatican cancelled Pope Leo’s US visit over Pentagon tensions, with the Pope instead spending the Fourth of July in Sicily, where he will visit migrants on Lampedusa. Bill Madden/X
A senior Pentagon official summoned Pope Leo XIV’s ambassador to a closed-door meeting in January and told him the United States ‘has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world’ and that ‘the Catholic Church had better take its side,’ according to accounts from Vatican and US officials briefed on the extraordinary encounter.
As the meeting grew heated, one American official invoked the Avignon Papacy, a 14th-century period when the French monarchy wielded military force to bring the Catholic Church to heel.
That era began with an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his death and ended with the papacy relocated from Rome to Avignon under French control for nearly seven decades.
Vatican officials interpreted the reference as a veiled threat to use military force against the Holy See, according to independent Vatican reporter Christopher Hale, who confirmed the meeting took place.
There is no public record of any Vatican official ever being summoned to the Pentagon before this encounter.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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