Peter Espeut | The president vs the Pope

On January 9, Pope Leo XIV delivered his annual ‘State of the World’ address to the diplomats accredited to the Vatican City State. In that speech (full text at https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2026/january/documents/20260109-corpo-diplomatico.html), among other things, he declared that:

“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies. War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading. The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined. Peace is no longer sought as a gift and a desirable good in itself, or in the pursuit of ‘the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect form of justice among men and women’. Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence”.

This declaration, of course, was made before the attack upon Iran by the USA and Israel the following month (February 28), but after the kidnapping of President Maduro of Venezuela by the USA (on January 3). Pope Leo called no names, but like the proverbial stone thrown into a hog sty, the one that bawled was the one that got hit!

SUMMONED

According to a report in The New Republic (dated April 8, 2026), a few days after the speech, US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Elbridge Colby, summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican Ambassador to the USA, to a closed-door meeting at the Pentagon. Colby is quoted as lecturing – maybe threatening – Cardinal Pierre, saying: “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side”.

According to the report, “A U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the fourteenth century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and subsequent death and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon, a region inside France”.

In the meeting with Cardinal Pierre, the Pope’s ‘State of the World’ address was dissected line by line and interpreted as a hostile message toward the Trump administration.

Well, as old time people seh, “Who de cap fit, mek dem wear it”.

But the threats and blatant intimidation is the first of its kind ever made by US officials to the Catholic Church. There is no public record of any previous meetings between Vatican and US officials at the Pentagon, let alone an instance in which the USA suggested that it could force the Bishop of Rome into captivity.

The Vatican was so alarmed by the Pentagon’s warning that Pope Leo cancelled his plans to visit the USA later in the year, as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of US independence. Clearly, many in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s reference to the Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See, or even the Pope himself!

Instead, on the 4th of July 2026 Pope Leo will visit Lampedusa, a tiny island between Tunisia and Sicily where North African refugee immigrants to Europe wash ashore by the thousands each year. Does not that decision shout loudly!

CALLED FOR PEACE

Since the beginning of the 2026 US/Israel War on Iran Pope Leo has constantly called for peace, and diplomatic dialogue. During his 2026 Palm Sunday address, Pope Leo stated that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war” and rejects them, citing that their “hands are full of blood”. He argued that war cannot be justified by religion, calling for an immediate ceasefire and dialogue over military action.

Donald Trump replied with a personal attack: “I think he is very weak on crime, and other things”.

Pope Leo rejoined: “I have no fear of either the Trump administration, nor speaking out loudly about the message of the gospel”.

The fact is, that among world leaders, Pope Leo seems to be the only one prepared to publicly take on Donald Trump. It appears that Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has more cojones than all the male PMs in the region put together; with respect to the imbroglio over the Cuban doctors and nurses, she declared:

“Now, I don’t believe that we have to shout across the seas, but I am prepared, like others in this region, that if we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter, then if the cost of it is the loss of my visa, to the US, then so be it.

“But what matters to us is principles. And I have said over and over that principles only mean something when it is inconvenient to stand by it. Now we don’t have to shout, but we can be resolute”.

I wish I could be around in 50 years time to read what future historians will write about this period. Donald Trump is putting the US constitution and US democracy to the test, and has challenged the sovereignty of many of the nations of the world. Serious times calls for serious leaders, prepared to make personal sacrifices in the cause of right.

Big up, Pope Leo!

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com