The increase in faith-fueled militaristic rhetoric is pitting the president against a growing list of faith leaders, ranging from local clergy to the pope.

The report comes as Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pope, has taken aim at the treatment of migrants in the U.S. amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and has most recently criticized the president’s threat to Iran that a “whole civilization will die” as “truly unacceptable.”

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

Warmongers leery of the pope’s wartime peace-preaching confronted a cardinal — revealing weakness in the face of moral force

Reports of a meeting between a Vatican representative and the Pentagon went viral, with allegations that the church had been warned to cease its criticism.

Allegations stem from interactions that originated in January, according to the Free Press, which reported that Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby allegedly summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s ambassador to Washington, D.C., to deliver a “bitter lecture” during a closed‑door meeting characterized as tense.

After reports of the alleged threat surfaced, a post on X falsely claimed, "Pope is reportedly 'not afraid' to excommunicate JD Vance from the Catholic Church."

Tensions between the Trump administration and the Vatican escalated this week after reports of a tense January meeting between Pentagon officials and the Holy See, prompting Vice President JD Vance to respond publicly while signaling uncertainty about what actually happened.