Avignongate: Washington Threatens the Vatican

In this episode, Alex unpacks “Avignongate,” a growing clash between Washington and Rome as Donald Trump’s political movement collides with the moral authority of Pope Leo XIV. What starts as a disputed diplomatic meeting opens into a deeper conflict over war, faith, and the rise of Christian nationalism—echoing the Avignon Papacy and the Western Schism, when political power fractured the Church itself. At its core, the episode asks a bigger question: who gets to define morality in the modern world—a superpower wielding military force, or a global church claiming authority beyond nations? And what happens when those two answers fundamentally disagree?