“The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the 14th century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and subsequent death and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon, a region inside France.

Wow. These people are fucking insane.

The source for the original report (The Free Press) seems questionable, per Wikipedia's own discussion on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_433#Is_this_article_about_a_Communist_millionaire_from_The_Free_Press_reliable?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_397#The_Free_Press

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_425#The_Free_Press_and_Amin_Husain

Also, please try to at least link the original article in the description: https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-vatican-and-the-white-house