Vatican: Report Pentagon lectured it’s Ambassador “Completely untrue”

America, the Jesuit US magazine, and no fan of Trump to say the least.

“The narrative offered by some media outlets about this meeting is completely untrue,” the Vatican press office statement said.

It said that Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the former papal ambassador to the U.S., “confirmed” that his Jan. 22 meeting with Eldridge Colby, U.S. undersecretary of war for policy, at the Pentagon “was part of the Papal Representative’s regular mission and provided the opportunity for an exchange of views on matters of mutual interest.”

A day earlier, both the U.S. War Department, a moniker for the Department of Defense, and Vatican Embassy in Washington issued written statements to OSV News disputing The Free Press’s characterization of the meeting between Colby and Cardinal Pierre, who retired from the post in March after turning 80.

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According to the April 6 report by The Free Press, “Vatican officials briefed on the meeting, who spoke with The Free Press on the condition of anonymity, described it as a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”

The official at the Department of Defense told OSV News that the report’s “characterization of the meeting is highly exaggerated and distorted.”

“The meeting between Pentagon and Vatican officials was a respectful and reasonable discussion,” the official’s statement said. “We have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See.”

The Vatican Embassy did not shed light on the tone of the meeting or offer specifics about what was discussed there with U.S. officials, but its statement emphasized such meetings are “a standard practice” and it is “grateful for the opportunities to meet and dialogue with government officials and others in Washington to discuss areas of mutual concern.”

The Free Press reported that after Pope Leo’s Jan. 9 speech to members of the diplomatic corps, Colby summoned Cardinal Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S. at that time, to the Pentagon. In the speech, the pontiff had condemned zeal for war and raised alarm that “the principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”