Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

Epstein Emailed About Getting Pope Francis a “Massage” During His 2015 U.S. Visit

In a 2015 email, Epstein suggested bringing Pope Francis over for a “massage” — complete with a lewd joke about the Holy Father climaxing to the name of Jesus.

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Christopher Hale
Feb 09, 2026
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Dear friends —

This is part two of a story that is uglier — and more revealing — than almost anyone expected: how Jeffrey Epstein, in his own words, spoke about Pope Francis, mocked the Christian faith, and treated the Catholic Church as something to be degraded, toyed with, and ultimately undermined.

In newly surfaced emails from 2015, written during Pope Francis’s visit to the United States, Epstein suggested inviting the Holy Father over for a “massage” and joked crudely about the pope sexually climaxing during it.

The exchange was not ambiguous. It was not ironic. It was vulgar, explicit, and deliberately dehumanizing. Epstein was not merely being tasteless.

He was expressing contempt — for Francis, for the papacy, and for the moral authority the pope represented.

The timing matters. Pope Francis was in New York City, staying overnight in an apartment steps away from Epstein’s own residence. While hundreds of thousands gathered to hear Francis speak about mercy, poverty, and human dignity, Epstein privately reduced the pope to a sexual punchline.

It was a window into how Epstein viewed power: nothing sacred, nothing off limits, everything subject to his control or mockery.

These emails are not an isolated lapse. They fit a broader pattern that emerges clearly once you begin reading Epstein’s correspondence in full.

As I reveal in this subscriber-only essay, Epstein sneered and mocked Christians consistently through the last decade of his life.

He ridiculed expressions of Christian faith as naïve and embarrassing. He mocked our Church’s efforts to serve the poor and fight for economic and social justice.

As we explored in Part One, this is the man who later exchanged messages with Steve Bannon about “taking down” Pope Francis.

A man who obsessed over Vatican politics, collected books about Church power, and surrounded himself with figures hostile to Francis’s reforms — all while privately expressing disgust for the faith itself.

Epstein did not misunderstand Catholicism. He understood it well enough to hate what it demanded.

That hatred is what gives these emails their weight. Epstein was not a lapsed believer joking crudely. He was a billionaire predator who saw moral authority as an obstacle and religious conviction as something to be broken down.

Pope Francis — with his emphasis on the poor, the marginalized, and the inherent worth of every person — represented precisely the kind of authority Epstein could not tolerate.

This series matters now because it is not merely historical.

As right-wing efforts to mobilize the Catholic vote for 2026 and 2028 begin to accelerate, many of the same networks, alliances, and instincts we are documenting are reemerging.

The attempt to neutralize Francis’s legacy, to strip Catholicism of its social conscience, and to weaponize faith for raw political power did not end with Epstein’s death. It simply adapted.

In the coming parts of this series, we will dig deeper into Steve Bannon’s role, the associates who carried these efforts forward, and how those schemes continue into the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. What began as obscene emails and cynical mockery hardened into strategy — and that strategy is still with us.

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And if this story unsettles you — if it makes you angry, or uneasy, or newly alert — I’m asking for your help to support this work. Silence has always been the ally of men like Epstein and Bannon.

We’re just getting started.

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In September 2015, Pope Francis and Jeffrey Epstein’s paths crossed in New York City. Pope Francis was in town, drawing throngs of New Yorkers to the streets as he visited charities and celebrated Mass in Madison Square Garden.

His overnight residence was a townhouse on East 72nd Street, the official papal nuncio’s home — just a short walk from Jeffrey Epstein’s palatial mansion on 71st. As the city stood still for the pontiff’s visit, Epstein saw a perverse opportunity.

In a newly surfaced email to his brother Mark, Epstein joked about inviting Pope Francis over for a “massage.” With the pope practically next door, Epstein quipped that they should get Francis on his infamous massage table — then made an obscene remark about the pontiff ejaculating to the name of Jesus during the session.

The exact phrasing is too crude to reprint in full, but it left no doubt that Epstein was fantasizing about the pope losing control under Epstein’s manipulative touch. It was a ghastly attempt at humor, blending blasphemy and sexual degradation. And it shows how even the Vicar of Christ was a punchline to Jeffrey Epstein.

This disturbing email is more than a tasteless joke. It offers a glimpse into Epstein’s mindset — a man who collected people of influence like trophies, and who apparently couldn’t resist imagining even the pope as part of his grotesque games.

Here’s what we’ve learned in the latest batch.

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