A senior Pentagon official invoked the Avignon Papacy against Pope Leo’s ambassador — the French Crown’s campaign that ended with a pope murdered. We will protect the pope and defeat these mobsters.
Sorry to say this, but Donald Trump lies like he breathes. He is also a self-centered malignant narcissist, who lacks the ability to empathize with anyone else. And of course he changed his mind at the last minute about the Iranian cease-fire, because he's disorganized, doesn't know what the heck he's doing, and makes it up as he goes along. And the fact that Pam Bondi's replacement immediately says, "let's just forget about the whole Epstein thing" shows how corrupt the entire system is. Trump has forced himself on countless women of ALL AGES throughout his life. Trump has also said, that if your famous and rich enough, "You can grab women by the p***y" He's also a pedophile, and has been mentioned in the Epstien files a record 38,000 times. Now he's started a war in the mid-east, where thousands of innocent people have been killed, including many children. The sooner he gets impeached, and/or removed from office due to health or other reasons, the better off the U.S. AND the world will be. Trump said he would keep the united states out of foreign war. He said he would lower the cost of living. What he has done is bomb Iran despite no imminent threat from them. And as one of the effects of this war, the cost of living for gasoline food, Medical care, housing and many other things continue to cost more. Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States, and the entire world. He needs to resign. The Republicans that have influence on him need to section 25, convince him to resign, and whatever, just get him the hell out of there! Sincerely David Morris, who was born one day long ago in Fort Wayne Indiana.
I love the Pope, and I am not of the Catholic Religion. I do, however, love his message, and believe it comes from God and Jesus. And yes, JD, I will support him over anyone in your stinking putrid administration.
To threaten a Cardinal, after summoning him to the Pentagon, and the Vatican with war is next level evil. Any Catholic in attendance should be excommunicated. These "right wing" Catholics are heretics and criminals
I tend to question this news for a few reasons: First, was there any communique from the office of Cardinal Christophe Pierre confirming this meeting and what was said during it? Second, Cardinal Pierre is now retired and was replaced by Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia in March. It seems unusual to summon a retired, replaced person to a high level government meeting. Third, it’s rather doubtful that Hegseth and his band of ignorant bravados would know anything about the history of the Church let along the Avignon Papacy. I would take a wait and see position on this one. If it happened, more of this kind of nonsense will be exposed.
I just spent the past 90-plus minutes using the extraordinarily useful link to contact my very own senators and representative; I live in FloriDumb, so you know how effective contacting MAGA idiots can be. Yet I did it. I also wrote three different emails suited to each "politician." They were firm, erudite, with a thin veil of snark.
Here's something about which we all must be aware; it came to mind when I read the suggested script for a phone call. The last sentence: "Thank you for taking my call."
NO. JUST NO.
We don't owe our two senators and our representative a single thing. They work to represent us. We vote them into office, and we re-elect them if we so choose. They would be nothing whatsoever without us. Do not forget that. I definitely did not "thank" my three MAGA idiots for accepting my emails, and I demanded a response that was neither canned nor written by this semester's intern.
J.D.Vance: “I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that.”
September 2024, J.D. Vance, "If I have to create stories [about Haitian immigrants eating pets] so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do."
Could this have been orchestrated by a member of Opus Dei? Last month Pope Leo met with Gareth Gore who gave an unvarnished picture of the group's history and controversies.
What happened between the papacy and the French crown in Avignon is perhaps best told/reflected with reference to the life of Catherine of Sienna.
Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) is best known for pressing Pope Gregory XI to leave Avignon and return the papacy to Rome.
That story is often told as charismatic politics, but Catherine’s public interventions are intelligible only inside her theology—above all her theology of **Christ crucified**. For Catherine, the Cross is not a devotional accessory. It is the truth of God made visible, the measure of the church’s health, and the pattern by which Christian leaders must govern in crisis.
The Avignon Papacy, with its entanglement in courtly security and international power, became for her a practical test: would the papacy conform to the Crucified or to the logic of fear?
Christ crucified as Catherine’s center of gravity
Catherine’s writing—especially *The Dialogue* and her letters—returns again and again to the Passion. She speaks in a dense symbolic language of **blood**, **fire**, **wounds**, and **bridge**. The point is not morbidity; it is moral and metaphysical clarity. In the Crucified, Catherine sees simultaneously:
- **God’s character:** divine love is self-giving rather than self-protecting.
- **Human truth:** sin is exposed as disordered love, a turning inward that wounds communion.
- **The shape of salvation:** healing comes through mercy that costs something—God’s descent into suffering love.
This cruciform vision produces an ethic.
To know Christ crucified is to have one’s instincts retrained: away from self-preservation, reputation, and comfort; toward truth, humility, courage, and concrete love of neighbor.
“Blood” and the church: the Cross as ecclesiology
Catherine’s language of Christ’s blood is also ecclesiological. The church is not simply an institution with religious functions; it is the community gathered and sustained by the saving work of Christ.
When Catherine urges reform, she is not primarily asking for procedural modernization. She is demanding that the church become transparently what it claims to be: a living sign of Christ’s sacrificial love.
This helps explain a feature that can puzzle modern readers: Catherine can denounce corrupt clergy with scorching frankness while insisting on reverence for the church’s sacramental life and obedience to the papal office.
Her logic is that the holiness of the church comes from Christ, not from the moral excellence of every minister. Precisely because the church is Christ’s, the scandal of un-cruciform leadership is unbearable—and must be confronted.
The Avignon Papacy as a cruciform crisis
The Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) was not merely a change of address.
It became a symbol of vulnerability to political capture, administrative worldliness, and distance—literal and spiritual—from the sufferings of the broader church. Catherine’s critique is theological: when the church’s center appears governed by court politics, it risks communicating that Christianity is another regime rather than a crucified and risen Lord.
Catherine frames the problem in terms of **fear** and **bad counsel**. Avignon represents safety: fortification, patronage networks, and a manageable environment. Rome represents danger: instability, factionalism, risk, and conflict.
For Catherine, the question is therefore Christological.
The pope, as shepherd, must not be ruled by fear.
If Christ moved toward the Cross for the sake of the world, the vicar of Christ must be willing to move toward risk for the sake of the church’s unity and credibility.
The pope under the sign of the Cross: leadership as courage
Catherine’s letters to Gregory XI are striking in tone: intimate, urgent, and often bracing. She calls him “father” and insists on the dignity of his office, yet she presses him to act decisively. This is not rebellion dressed as piety; it is her cruciform theology applied to governance.
What does “Christ crucified” demand of the pope in her view?
- **Presence instead of distance:** a shepherd is with the flock, not sheltered from it.
- **Truth instead of flattery:** the pope must reject courtiers who soothe rather than sanctify.
- **Reform instead of management:** corruption must be healed at its roots, not cosmetically tolerated.
- **Risk-bearing instead of self-protection:** courageous action is part of pastoral charity.
Catherine’s argument for returning to Rome is thus not reducible to Italian patriotism. Rome, for her, carries apostolic and martyrial meaning—Peter and Paul, witness and blood. In a period of cynicism, returning to Rome could function as a public reorientation of the papacy toward its foundational narrative: leadership grounded in witness, not merely administration.
Reform as conversion: why the Cross targets self-love
Catherine’s most consistent diagnosis of ecclesial decay is **disordered self-love**—the inward curve of the will that seeks comfort, status, and control. The Cross unmasks this because it shows love that gives rather than grasps. Therefore, reform cannot be only structural; it must be spiritual and moral.
In Catherine’s vision, institutional failure is often the external symptom of internal vices:
- **Cowardice** that postpones hard decisions.
- **Ambition** that trades holiness for alliances.
- **Greed** that treats office as income and influence.
- **Sensuality and comfort** that dull zeal for truth.
The theology of Christ crucified does not permit a leadership culture built on avoidance.
If the church’s leaders will not suffer for truth, Catherine implies, they will end up making others suffer for their evasions.
Loyal dissent: obedience that speaks boldly
Catherine models a distinctive kind of political-theological speech: she is loyal to the papacy while refusing to be silent about papal failure. Her boldness is itself cruciform. It risks misunderstanding, backlash, and dismissal; it chooses the discomfort of truth over the safety of deference.
This is why her interventions are best read as acts of charity.
For Catherine, charity is not niceness; it is willing the true good of the other and of the church—even when that requires confrontation.
The Cross authorizes this because the Cross is love that wounds pride in order to heal the person.
Catherine of Siena’s enduring power lies in how seamlessly she unites mysticism and crisis politics through a single center: **Christ crucified**. The Cross, for her, is the disclosure of God’s love and the blueprint for ecclesial credibility.
In the Avignon Papacy she saw a church tempted by safety and compromised by proximity to power. Her response was not partisan strategy but a cruciform summons: return to apostolic rootedness, reform corrupted leadership, and govern without fear. Catherine’s legacy is therefore not only that she urged a pope to move cities, but that she insisted the church’s highest office must look like its Lord—willing to suffer for truth so that the church can once again speak the gospel with moral authority.
Catholics and non-Catholics around the world love Pope Leo as they did Pope Francis - this govt of thugs and cowards doesn't stand a chance against such an immense, united, and determined group of people...
Dear God what is wrong with this administration? They are mobsters. To threaten our Pope by invoking the murder of a Pope can not stand. JD Vance needs to be excommunicated and these people in the Pentagon need to be fired.
Sorry to say this, but Donald Trump lies like he breathes. He is also a self-centered malignant narcissist, who lacks the ability to empathize with anyone else. And of course he changed his mind at the last minute about the Iranian cease-fire, because he's disorganized, doesn't know what the heck he's doing, and makes it up as he goes along. And the fact that Pam Bondi's replacement immediately says, "let's just forget about the whole Epstein thing" shows how corrupt the entire system is. Trump has forced himself on countless women of ALL AGES throughout his life. Trump has also said, that if your famous and rich enough, "You can grab women by the p***y" He's also a pedophile, and has been mentioned in the Epstien files a record 38,000 times. Now he's started a war in the mid-east, where thousands of innocent people have been killed, including many children. The sooner he gets impeached, and/or removed from office due to health or other reasons, the better off the U.S. AND the world will be. Trump said he would keep the united states out of foreign war. He said he would lower the cost of living. What he has done is bomb Iran despite no imminent threat from them. And as one of the effects of this war, the cost of living for gasoline food, Medical care, housing and many other things continue to cost more. Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States, and the entire world. He needs to resign. The Republicans that have influence on him need to section 25, convince him to resign, and whatever, just get him the hell out of there! Sincerely David Morris, who was born one day long ago in Fort Wayne Indiana.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I love the Pope, and I am not of the Catholic Religion. I do, however, love his message, and believe it comes from God and Jesus. And yes, JD, I will support him over anyone in your stinking putrid administration.
Four of my brothers and I are US military (Army, Navy, Marines) veterans and we are Catholic first as in God, Family, Country. God bless our pope.
Keep Remembering...it is ALWAYS darkest before the Dawn!
Hang in there because WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER!
Why haven't we heard about this from the "press?"
To threaten a Cardinal, after summoning him to the Pentagon, and the Vatican with war is next level evil. Any Catholic in attendance should be excommunicated. These "right wing" Catholics are heretics and criminals
Because the Zionists control the press.
I tend to question this news for a few reasons: First, was there any communique from the office of Cardinal Christophe Pierre confirming this meeting and what was said during it? Second, Cardinal Pierre is now retired and was replaced by Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia in March. It seems unusual to summon a retired, replaced person to a high level government meeting. Third, it’s rather doubtful that Hegseth and his band of ignorant bravados would know anything about the history of the Church let along the Avignon Papacy. I would take a wait and see position on this one. If it happened, more of this kind of nonsense will be exposed.
I just spent the past 90-plus minutes using the extraordinarily useful link to contact my very own senators and representative; I live in FloriDumb, so you know how effective contacting MAGA idiots can be. Yet I did it. I also wrote three different emails suited to each "politician." They were firm, erudite, with a thin veil of snark.
Here's something about which we all must be aware; it came to mind when I read the suggested script for a phone call. The last sentence: "Thank you for taking my call."
NO. JUST NO.
We don't owe our two senators and our representative a single thing. They work to represent us. We vote them into office, and we re-elect them if we so choose. They would be nothing whatsoever without us. Do not forget that. I definitely did not "thank" my three MAGA idiots for accepting my emails, and I demanded a response that was neither canned nor written by this semester's intern.
Are These the Same Person???
J.D.Vance: “I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that.”
September 2024, J.D. Vance, "If I have to create stories [about Haitian immigrants eating pets] so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do."
Could this have been orchestrated by a member of Opus Dei? Last month Pope Leo met with Gareth Gore who gave an unvarnished picture of the group's history and controversies.
Yes. Elbridge Colby seems to fit as an OD operative. Catholic, Yale grad, link to JD and Theil...
What happened between the papacy and the French crown in Avignon is perhaps best told/reflected with reference to the life of Catherine of Sienna.
Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) is best known for pressing Pope Gregory XI to leave Avignon and return the papacy to Rome.
That story is often told as charismatic politics, but Catherine’s public interventions are intelligible only inside her theology—above all her theology of **Christ crucified**. For Catherine, the Cross is not a devotional accessory. It is the truth of God made visible, the measure of the church’s health, and the pattern by which Christian leaders must govern in crisis.
The Avignon Papacy, with its entanglement in courtly security and international power, became for her a practical test: would the papacy conform to the Crucified or to the logic of fear?
Christ crucified as Catherine’s center of gravity
Catherine’s writing—especially *The Dialogue* and her letters—returns again and again to the Passion. She speaks in a dense symbolic language of **blood**, **fire**, **wounds**, and **bridge**. The point is not morbidity; it is moral and metaphysical clarity. In the Crucified, Catherine sees simultaneously:
- **God’s character:** divine love is self-giving rather than self-protecting.
- **Human truth:** sin is exposed as disordered love, a turning inward that wounds communion.
- **The shape of salvation:** healing comes through mercy that costs something—God’s descent into suffering love.
This cruciform vision produces an ethic.
To know Christ crucified is to have one’s instincts retrained: away from self-preservation, reputation, and comfort; toward truth, humility, courage, and concrete love of neighbor.
“Blood” and the church: the Cross as ecclesiology
Catherine’s language of Christ’s blood is also ecclesiological. The church is not simply an institution with religious functions; it is the community gathered and sustained by the saving work of Christ.
When Catherine urges reform, she is not primarily asking for procedural modernization. She is demanding that the church become transparently what it claims to be: a living sign of Christ’s sacrificial love.
This helps explain a feature that can puzzle modern readers: Catherine can denounce corrupt clergy with scorching frankness while insisting on reverence for the church’s sacramental life and obedience to the papal office.
Her logic is that the holiness of the church comes from Christ, not from the moral excellence of every minister. Precisely because the church is Christ’s, the scandal of un-cruciform leadership is unbearable—and must be confronted.
The Avignon Papacy as a cruciform crisis
The Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) was not merely a change of address.
It became a symbol of vulnerability to political capture, administrative worldliness, and distance—literal and spiritual—from the sufferings of the broader church. Catherine’s critique is theological: when the church’s center appears governed by court politics, it risks communicating that Christianity is another regime rather than a crucified and risen Lord.
Catherine frames the problem in terms of **fear** and **bad counsel**. Avignon represents safety: fortification, patronage networks, and a manageable environment. Rome represents danger: instability, factionalism, risk, and conflict.
For Catherine, the question is therefore Christological.
The pope, as shepherd, must not be ruled by fear.
If Christ moved toward the Cross for the sake of the world, the vicar of Christ must be willing to move toward risk for the sake of the church’s unity and credibility.
The pope under the sign of the Cross: leadership as courage
Catherine’s letters to Gregory XI are striking in tone: intimate, urgent, and often bracing. She calls him “father” and insists on the dignity of his office, yet she presses him to act decisively. This is not rebellion dressed as piety; it is her cruciform theology applied to governance.
What does “Christ crucified” demand of the pope in her view?
- **Presence instead of distance:** a shepherd is with the flock, not sheltered from it.
- **Truth instead of flattery:** the pope must reject courtiers who soothe rather than sanctify.
- **Reform instead of management:** corruption must be healed at its roots, not cosmetically tolerated.
- **Risk-bearing instead of self-protection:** courageous action is part of pastoral charity.
Catherine’s argument for returning to Rome is thus not reducible to Italian patriotism. Rome, for her, carries apostolic and martyrial meaning—Peter and Paul, witness and blood. In a period of cynicism, returning to Rome could function as a public reorientation of the papacy toward its foundational narrative: leadership grounded in witness, not merely administration.
Reform as conversion: why the Cross targets self-love
Catherine’s most consistent diagnosis of ecclesial decay is **disordered self-love**—the inward curve of the will that seeks comfort, status, and control. The Cross unmasks this because it shows love that gives rather than grasps. Therefore, reform cannot be only structural; it must be spiritual and moral.
In Catherine’s vision, institutional failure is often the external symptom of internal vices:
- **Cowardice** that postpones hard decisions.
- **Ambition** that trades holiness for alliances.
- **Greed** that treats office as income and influence.
- **Sensuality and comfort** that dull zeal for truth.
The theology of Christ crucified does not permit a leadership culture built on avoidance.
If the church’s leaders will not suffer for truth, Catherine implies, they will end up making others suffer for their evasions.
Loyal dissent: obedience that speaks boldly
Catherine models a distinctive kind of political-theological speech: she is loyal to the papacy while refusing to be silent about papal failure. Her boldness is itself cruciform. It risks misunderstanding, backlash, and dismissal; it chooses the discomfort of truth over the safety of deference.
This is why her interventions are best read as acts of charity.
For Catherine, charity is not niceness; it is willing the true good of the other and of the church—even when that requires confrontation.
The Cross authorizes this because the Cross is love that wounds pride in order to heal the person.
Catherine of Siena’s enduring power lies in how seamlessly she unites mysticism and crisis politics through a single center: **Christ crucified**. The Cross, for her, is the disclosure of God’s love and the blueprint for ecclesial credibility.
In the Avignon Papacy she saw a church tempted by safety and compromised by proximity to power. Her response was not partisan strategy but a cruciform summons: return to apostolic rootedness, reform corrupted leadership, and govern without fear. Catherine’s legacy is therefore not only that she urged a pope to move cities, but that she insisted the church’s highest office must look like its Lord—willing to suffer for truth so that the church can once again speak the gospel with moral authority.
Blessed be the written word of God.
Smells more like a Hegseth leak to save his job
Avignon?
Catholics and non-Catholics around the world love Pope Leo as they did Pope Francis - this govt of thugs and cowards doesn't stand a chance against such an immense, united, and determined group of people...
Dear God what is wrong with this administration? They are mobsters. To threaten our Pope by invoking the murder of a Pope can not stand. JD Vance needs to be excommunicated and these people in the Pentagon need to be fired.
Excellent post, thank you!