NEW: A stunning new report claims that the Pentagon summoned Pope Leo XIV’s top American diplomat and threatened him after the U.S.-born pontiff gave his January state-of-the-world address.
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.
That scene, broken this week by Mattia Ferraresi in an extraordinary piece of journalism for The Free Press, may be the most remarkable moment in the long and knotted history of the American republic’s relationship with the Catholic Church. substack.com/home/post/p-19…
I encourage you to follow @MattiaFerraresi for more great journalism.
NEW: Cardinal Dolan accuses the Trump-Vance ICE of “targeting, harassing, and going into” Catholic parishes.
He called it a major violation of religious liberty.
Here’s a thread of the Trump-Vance White House targeting and harassing Catholic parishes over the past year:
Francisco Paredes served his Minnesota Catholic parish faithfully for years.
Then ICE arrested him in the church parking lot and deported him before Christmas.
Weeks later, masked agents returned during Sunday Mass. The parish priest says it feels like a war zone.
Now Catholic leaders are calling it what it is: an anti-Catholic campaign.
They say the Trump-Vance White House is targeting parishes that welcome immigrants — using fear and raids to drive families from the pews. thelettersfromleo.com/p/in-anti-cath…
NEW: Peter Thiel, JD Vance’s top donor and one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful men, recently called Pope Leo XIV a tool of the Antichrist — and directly told the vice president not to listen to him. thelettersfromleo.com/p/new-jd-vance…
Peter Thiel wants us to be terrified of this man and not of his Palantir project, which enables real-time government monitoring at scale.
Silicon Valley’s pile-on against Pope Leo XIV isn’t new. Just this month, Marc Andreessen sneered at him for urging ethical AI development.
And let’s be real: the industry’s approval rating is already underwater with Americans across the spectrum. Taking cheap shots at a the world’s most respected religious leader isn’t going to fix that.
NEW: Following Pope Leo XIV's lead, the U.S. bishops release a new video condemning the Trump-Vance White House’s “inhumane” deportation raids.
At Pope Leo XIV’s urging, U.S. Catholic bishops just delivered the strongest rebuke of a sitting president in Church history — condemning Trump-Vance raids as “inhumane” and “dehumanizing” in a nearly unanimous vote. thelettersfromleo.com/p/breaking-at-…
Just to clarify, there are some very conservative bishops in this video. This isn't some super woke alliance. This is the Roman Catholic Church.
A shooting during a Catholic school Mass left two children dead and seventeen more injured.
Today, top U.S. bishops went beyond thoughts and prayers.
They’re demanding Congress act. Here’s what they said — and what they want passed. 👇
Pope Leo's ally and fellow Chicagoan Cardinal Cupich said the failure to pass gun laws was a major part of the problem — and condemned the misuse of “freedom” to block reform. archchicago.org/en/statement/-…
Archbishop Weisenburger of Detroit joined the call to action.
He urged an end to the “superabundance of handguns and assault weapons.”
🧵Under Pope Leo, Catholics in MAGA country are defying Trump’s ICE raids.
500 sisters in Atlanta. Kansas bishops telling ICE to stand down. Texas priests accompanying migrants to court. Florida clergy forcing Mass inside Alligator Alcatraz.
A state-by-state rundown below. ⬇️
500 Catholic sisters marched through downtown Atlanta for migrant families — prayer, signs, and courage. In MAGA country, the Church is loud. thelettersfromleo.com/p/500-nuns-mar…
Bishops in Wichita, Dodge City, and Salina publicly rebuked Trump’s ICE raids — calling mass detentions a betrayal of the Gospel. thelettersfromleo.com/p/kansas-bisho…