{"id":104619,"date":"2026-02-19T04:28:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=104619"},"modified":"2026-02-19T04:28:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:28:50","slug":"press-secretary-karoline-leavitt-insults-vatican-on-the-first-day-of-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=104619","title":{"rendered":"Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Insults Vatican On The First Day Of Lent."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Washington DC; February 2026<\/strong>: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who eventually is a cradle Catholic has put the Vatican on blast after it said it won\u2019t participate in Donald Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Vatican\u2019s top diplomatic official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on 17th February 2026, that the Vatican believes such crisis situations should be handled by the United Nations, in response to the president\u2019s January invitation for Pope Leo to join his initiative. \u201cI think it\u2019s deeply unfortunate. I don\u2019t think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial\u201d, Leavitt fired back on Wednesday (early Thursday IST), the first day of Lent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leavitt, who is an enthusiastic crucifix wearer was baptised a Catholic and went to a Catholic college, but was married to her 60 years old husband outside the church after the birth of their child, and posted her attendance at a non-denominational in Easter 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The White House press secretary insisted that the administration wants those invited to join the \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d which is set to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, with Trump as its chairman. \u201cThe \u2018Board of Peace\u2019 is overseeing the reconstruction of a territory that has been plagued with violence, with bloodshed, with poverty for far too long\u201d, Leavitt said. \u201cThis president has a very bold and ambitious plan and vision to rebuild and reconstruct Gaza\u201d. She went on to claim it was a legitimate organisation with \u201ctens of member countries from around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her response to a question at the White House briefing came after Parolin told reporters one of the Vatican\u2019s concerns is that at the international level, \u201cit should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent months, Chicago-born Pope Leo has not shied away from criticizing Trump\u2019s foreign policy and violent immigration crackdown in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Donald Trump have announced the \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d with him at its helm last year as part of his multi-step plan to end the war in Gaza. At the same time, had quickly made clear that the scope of the initiative would be much wider as the president desperately tries to cement himself as the \u201cpeace president\u201d and boasts about ending wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump formally unveiled his \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d last month with a ceremony held alongside the World Economic Forum in Davos, but his effort was snubbed by a series of Western allies who\u2019ve raised concerns. There has been harsh criticism that a U.S. president would oversee the reconstruction of a foreign region, as well as the board not including a Palestinian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, the president confirmed last month that he even invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to join the initiative, despite Putin\u2019s invasion and ongoing war in Ukraine. The \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d will hold its first official meeting on Thursday (today late evening IST) at the Institute of Peace, another building in Washington, DC, in which the President has incorporated his own name, along with John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the press meeting, Leavitt revealed that Trump will announce that the board\u2019s member states have pledged $5 billion toward Gaza reconstruction efforts and thousands of troops to maintain peace and security there. The press secretary did not provide a breakdown of which countries had pledged money or support but said it would be made available. She indicated more than 20 countries would be participating in the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked who would control the $5 billion, Leavitt insisted it would be the \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d, with the president as its chairman, and suggested member nations would get to vote on how the money is used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S.\u2019s closest allies skipped Trump\u2019s \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d ceremony last month in Switzerland altogether. The drab event was instead attended by a group of strongmen and leaders of smaller nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speakers for the event will include the president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the White House did not specifically address which countries had made pledges to the $5 billion being announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSince the President and his world-class team ended the war between Israel and Hamas last October, we have maintained the ceasefire, delivered historic amounts of humanitarian aid, and freed every single living and dead hostage. The Board of Peace will continue this historic success and prove itself to be the most consequential international body in history\u201d, said spokesperson Anna Kelly in a statement about the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Team Maverick<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington DC; February 2026: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who eventually is a cradle Catholic has put the Vatican on blast after it said it won\u2019t participate in Donald Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d. The Vatican\u2019s top diplomatic official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on 17th February 2026, that the Vatican believes such crisis situations &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":104620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[81],"post_format":[],"flags":[],"class_list":["post-104619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104621,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104619\/revisions\/104621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104619"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_format&post=104619"},{"taxonomy":"flags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fflags&post=104619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}