this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
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Relations between the U.S. and the Catholic Church have not been the same since January, when senior U.S. defense officials shared an abrasive message with a Vatican official.

Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's U.S. representative, to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for a bitter lecture.

"The United States," Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, "has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side."

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[–] Godric@lemmy.world 95 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Bananskal@nord.pub 41 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That context though... Thanks for that!

[–] Godric@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (2 children)

In this day and age, literally anything sounds like it could be true, so I try to take some especially inflammatory things with a healthy grain of salt.

Also, with a suspiciously generic name like "Free Press", you bet I'm looking at your credentials!

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 7 points 2 months ago

With these fuckers it always seems right though.

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[–] tirateimas@lemmy.pt 74 points 2 months ago (2 children)

There you have it, if you had any doubts that the US has been taken over by a bunch of crazy people. In their words, they can do whatever they want, but they barely accomplish a thing.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Uh, you think they've been taken over just recently? Trump just exposes what's been going on for decades through his borderline personality disorder.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Yeah, the falacy that over a hundred million of people in the US just suddenly woke up and decided that they wanted their country to be controlled by a derranged multi-millionaire extremelly high on the Narcissist spectrum parroting near-Fascist and outright Fascist ideas, doesn't hold up to even the most cursory logical analysis.

Only tribalist supporters of the "other party", who thus desperatelly want to believe their tribal chiefs are not at all to blame in any way form or shape for America going down the path that led to a double Trump victory, will cherry pick and twist "evidence", and be very selective in the logical explanations they're willing to consider, to create logically-sounding (for the unthinking) theories that exhonerate their own chiefs that are so beyond real Logic that they're akin to using "Magic" as explanation.

The field from were votes for somebody like Trump were a bountiful harvest has for decades been plowed and fertilized by American politicians and by American billionaires using the Press and Think Tanks their own.

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[–] TwinTitans@lemmy.world 71 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Guys fucking delusional 🤣 we’ve seen how well that works over the last 50 years.

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 67 points 2 months ago (3 children)

MAGA has no concept of soft power. They just don't get it, do they?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, they're clearly aware enough to feel threatened by it, given that that's all the power the Vatican holds

[–] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The idea seems to be to use the hard power to make the soft power go away.

It doesn't work like that of course, but fascists are gonna fascist.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"Might makes right" authoritarianism has no use for it. Why bother with getting people to like you when you have all the guns? Besides, these troglodytes are a pretty unlikable bunch in the first place - it's simply not how they navigate the world.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago

"You can do anything you like with bayonets, except sit on them" Talleyrand, circa 1815

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Soft sounds to girly for the insecure bastards in office

[–] tal@lemmy.today 48 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

https://catholicvote.org/pew-poll-52-of-catholics-including-61-of-white-catholics-back-trump-over-harris/

Pew poll: 52% of Catholics including 61% of white Catholics back Trump over Harris

Should be interesting to see how that plays with the electorate.

EDIT: Also, I don't have my finger on the pulse of the Catholic Church in the US, but the current pope, Leo XIV, was the first born in the US. I know that John Paul II, Polish, was the first Polish pope and was highly-regarded in Poland, and I can imagine that there might be a similar effect in the US among American Catholics.

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (21 children)

Catholics are not the major Christian group, it's 2nd place in the US. 69% of US residents claim to be Christian, 45% of which Christians claim to be Protestant while only 22% of which say Catholic (Gallup 2020). It's regional too, I beleive centered around Italian and Irish immigrant communities, or at least the suburbs around where those city diasporas used to be. Protestants specifically do not give a shit about the pope.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago

Evangelicals are the most vocal, and they are very much opposed to the Pope.

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[–] metalsd@eviltoast.org 46 points 2 months ago

I'm starting to believe JD isn't a true believer of his religion 🤡

[–] Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The pope could do the funniest thing rn and call a crusade on the US

[–] Nikelui@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why bother? Just excommunicate the usual suspects, and watch the cognitive dissonance of the ultra-catholics.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 17 points 2 months ago

Please, I've been wanting this since he killed the last pope 😭😭😭

[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 45 points 2 months ago

In what fucking world does it make sense that i ally myself with the pope. I hate this timeline

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 36 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

“The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

Yes, you have lots of guns and bombs and you're very big and strong. But the Pope was offering a moral criticism. You know, about morality, doing the right thing. Have you or your "Christian" colleagues ever heard of it? Turns out it doesn't often align with who is most eager and equipped to kill anyone who looks at them the wrong way. Even Jesus (heard of him?) had a thing or two to say about that.

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[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 35 points 2 months ago

Time for the Pope to call a crusade. Deus Vult.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 32 points 2 months ago (2 children)

"How many divisions does the pope have?"

  • ~~Joseph Stalin~~ Peter Hegseth
[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago

This fool Hegseth tried to divide by ~~zero~~ pope 🙄

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[–] bluegreenpurplepink@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Six of our nine Supreme Court Justices are Catholics.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

As catholic as 5 year old croissants left outside in the dirt are

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah not the usual breed are they? I’m from a catholics family and the horrors they enable are absolutely alien to the principles I grew up with. They whole of them would be ripe for hell if that was a thing…

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[–] Lanske@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

Maga Yanks are total nutters

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 months ago

Time for the Pope to start using the excomunicato hammer again.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 17 points 2 months ago

Ah, the old Might Makes Right mantra!

This one predates humanity itself, or even cellular lifeforms. I wonder why the Cardinal did not know this? Oh well, at least now he has been reeducated, so all should be well!

[–] Slashme@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

That sounds like something that an envoy of Sauron would say. Does Colby really think he's one of the good guys?

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

LOL

It's fascinating that the Pope gets threatened for being critical of Donald, and not, you know, facilitating an international child trafficking ring.

[–] mPony@kbin.earth 10 points 2 months ago

there can be only one

[–] obvs@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

I remember in the last book of the Bible it always talks about the very Christian one world government.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 8 points 2 months ago

Idiot sub-adolescents thinking they're smart

[–] kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago

It's cool. None of this really matters anyways with the whole separation of church and state.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Smells like weakness to me.

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