Washington DC - A recent report alleges that a behind-closed-doors meeting occurred in January wherein the Department of Defense lectured senior Vatican officials about the US' military supremacy.

An investigation by the Free Press unearthed the reported meeting, which apparently took place between Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby and Cardinal Christophe Pierre in January.

According to the report, Colby and other DOD officials told Pierre – who was at the time Pope Leo XIV's ambassador to the US – that the US' overwhelming military power meant they could basically do whatever they wanted.

The message of the meeting, the report alleges, was that the Catholic Church had better side with the Trump administration's foreign policy and military agenda or else the military could be used to threaten the papacy.

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In a possibly veiled threat, Colby reportedly referenced the Avignon Papacy, a period between 1309 and 1376 during which the pope resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. It was triggered in part by Pope Boniface VIII's violent death at the hands of King Philip IV of France.

This meeting has not been publicly confirmed by either the Pentagon or the Vatican, but was independently verified to have taken place by Letters from Leo. The Free Press obtained the information via accounts from anonymous Vatican and US officials who had been briefed on the meeting.

If true, it is the first known time that the US government has ever directly threatened the papacy if it doesn't support its policy agenda.

Pope Leo XIV has publicly condemned not only President Donald Trump's war of aggression against Iran, as well as his dire threats over the weekend, but much of his administration's agenda.

"Today... there was this threat against all the people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable," Leo said on Tuesday. "Come back to the table."