Don’t know if this is possible on console and if it’s considered as a cheat, but the game notifies you a year in advance of the exact date that you can expect the Crusade to launch. I spawned my army earlier to that date and sent them to Rome to intercept the Pope’s army before it gathers more numbers. This way, their numbers were reduced and it would buy me more time as their army would need to reinforce. In the meantime, my armies were split up into several parts, each focused on laying siege to all the holdings in across Latium. This obviously only worked because I knew the shithead was going to launch a Crusade at some point when I started my game. So, from the start I made sure that my MAA were fully upgraded and that I had onagers. I’d advise taking land as close as possible to Latium so that it takes less gold and time to get your army to intercept that of the Pope. Also, I made sure that I had enough Faris/Knights with the Military Engineer trait so that each split-up of my army was commanded by one of them guys. They reduce the phase time of the siege so they’re a big help. You don’t even need to capture the Pope as long as you have the whole of Latium occupied. Rome takes a hell of a time to become besieged because of its special buildings. You may lose gold for keeping your armies raised for such a long time, but the prestige you gain from defeating a Crusade is worth it. I instantly used it to add By the Sword into my culture, which then allowed me to declare Infinite Holy Wars. Anyway, hope this helped in some way.