Avignon-Gate Reopens the MAGA-Catholic Rift

A January Pentagon meeting with Vatican diplomat Cardinal Pierre, reportedly referencing Avignon as a veiled warning to the Vatican after Pope Leo XIV criticized U.S. policy, has sparked the so-called Avignon-gate. While the Trump administration and Vatican deny the most explosive claims and accounts vary, the controversy underscores deep fractures within MAGA’s religious-right and the U.S. Catholic Church over immigration, the Iran war, and the pope’s role in criticizing U.S. foreign policy.