{"id":575391,"date":"2026-04-10T06:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575391\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:25:09","slug":"pentagon-plays-down-rift-with-vatican-despite-pope-leos-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575391\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon plays down rift with Vatican despite Pope Leo\u2019s criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Pentagon and the Vatican denied allegations of a rift following Pope Leo\u2019s criticism of the Trump administration and a news report of a contentious meeting between a papal envoy and a top US defence official.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In separate statements, the two sides both professed an eagerness to get along, saying the meeting that occurred in January was frank but polite. The Defence Department issued a statement that said \u201cwe have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe Apostolic Nunciature is grateful for the opportunities to meet and dialogue with government officials and others in Washington to discuss areas of mutual concern,\u201d the Vatican\u2019s diplomatic mission in Washington said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The episode comes at a moment of friction between the Trump administration and the new pope. In a January address, Pope Leo made a plea for a more peaceful world order and offered oblique criticism of the US days after a US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. \u201cA diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He was even more pointed after US President Donald Trump issued a social media threat against Iran that \u201ca whole civilization will die tonight\u201d. The pope called that threat \u201ctruly unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Those tensions were given further fuel this week after the Free Press reported that US officials had pressured the Catholic Church to take Washington\u2019s side in international affairs \u2013 and warned of dire consequences if it failed to do so.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/79ba0342-fd59-4bb2-81da-a19f3b1c5ff4_1eb8dd27.jpg\" title=\"US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters\"\/>US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pentagon and the Vatican denied allegations of a rift following Pope Leo\u2019s criticism of the Trump administration&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12,801,3,253096,21,19,22,20,25,24,150219,18232,1139],"class_list":["post-575391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-news","tag-pope-leo","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vatican","tag-venezuela","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}