Gallery
Pope Benedict XVI celebrates his 81st birthday with President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, April 16, 2008
Pope Francis and President Barack Obama at the White House, September 23, 2015
This is the list of meetings between the pope and the president of the United States. The first meeting between a pope and an incumbent U.S. president took place in the aftermath of World War I, January 1919, at the Vatican between Benedict XV and Woodrow Wilson. Altogether, there have been 31 meetings between six popes and 14 U.S. presidents over the past century.
| No. | Date | Site | City | Country | President | Pope | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 4, 1919 | Apostolic Palace [1] | Rome | Italy | Woodrow Wilson | Benedict XV | First meeting between the incumbent president of the United States and the reigning pope. Occurred during President Wilson's participation in the Paris Peace Conference, the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Europe. |
| 2 | December 6, 1959 | Vatican City [2] | Dwight D. Eisenhower | John XXIII | |||
| 3 | July 2, 1963 | Vatican City [3] | John F. Kennedy | Paul VI | First meeting between a Roman Catholic U.S. president and the head of the Catholic Church. | ||
| 4 | October 4, 1965 | Waldorf Astoria New York | New York City [4] [5] | United States | Lyndon B. Johnson | First papal visit to the United States, which also included an address to the United Nations and a visit to the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. [6] [7] | |
| 5 | December 23, 1967 | Vatican City [8] | Unannounced stop at the end of the president's visit to Australia and Asia. [7] | ||||
| 6 | March 2, 1969 | Vatican City [9] | Richard Nixon | ||||
| 7 | September 29, 1970 | Vatican City [9] | |||||
| 8 | June 3, 1975 | Vatican City [10] | Gerald Ford | ||||
| 9 | October 6, 1979 | White House [11] | Washington, D.C. [12] | United States | Jimmy Carter | John Paul II | First visit by a pope to the White House. |
| 10 | June 21, 1980 | Vatican City [13] | |||||
| 11 | June 7, 1982 | Vatican City [14] | Ronald Reagan | ||||
| 12 | May 2, 1984 | Fairbanks International Airport | Fairbanks, Alaska [12] | United States | President Reagan was returning to the United States from a visit to China while Pope John Paul II was making a stopover on his way to South Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Thailand. [15] | ||
| 13 | June 6, 1987 | Vatican City [14] | |||||
| 14 | September 10, 1987 | Miami International Airport [16] and the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens [17] | Miami, Florida [12] | United States | |||
| 15 | May 27, 1989 | Vatican City [18] | George H. W. Bush | ||||
| 16 | November 8, 1991 | Vatican City [18] | |||||
| 17 | August 12, 1993 | Regis University [19] | Denver, Colorado [12] | United States | Bill Clinton | Both leaders addressed thousands of young students at World Youth Day. [20] | |
| 18 | June 2, 1994 | Vatican City [21] | |||||
| 19 | October 4, 1995 | Newark Liberty International Airport [22] | Newark, New Jersey [12] | United States | |||
| 20 | January 26, 1999 | St. Louis Lambert International Airport [23] | St. Louis, Missouri [12] | United States | |||
| 21 | July 23, 2001 | Palace of Castel Gandolfo [Note 1] | Castel Gandolfo [24] | Italy | George W. Bush | ||
| 22 | May 28, 2002 | Vatican City [24] | |||||
| 23 | June 4, 2004 | Vatican City [24] | President Bush presented Pope John Paul II with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. [25] | ||||
| 24 | June 9, 2007 | Vatican City [24] | Benedict XVI | ||||
| 25 | April 15–16, 2008 | White House [11] | Washington, D.C. [26] [27] | United States | |||
| 26 | June 13, 2008 | Vatican City [24] | |||||
| 27 | July 10, 2009 | Vatican City [28] [29] [30] [31] | Barack Obama | ||||
| 28 | March 27, 2014 | Vatican City [32] [33] | Francis | ||||
| 29 | September 22–23, 2015 | White House [11] | Washington, D.C. [34] [35] | United States | |||
| 30 | May 24, 2017 | Vatican City [36] | Donald Trump | Occurred during President Trump's visit to Israel, the West Bank, Italy, and Saudi Arabia. [37] The meeting proceeded amicably despite prior public disagreements between the two on environmental policy and Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. [37] [38] | |||
| 31 | October 29, 2021 | Vatican City [39] | Joe Biden | Second meeting between a Roman Catholic U.S. president and the head of the Catholic Church. Occurred during President Biden's visit to Italy and the United Kingdom. | |||
Additionally, Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) visited the United States for two weeks in October–November 1936 and met President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park, New York on November 5, 1936. [40]
President George W. Bush attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II on April 8, 2005 and briefly met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, who had celebrated the Requiem Mass. [41] Bush was the first incumbent U.S. president to attend a papal funeral. [42]
According to his sister Corinne, future President Theodore Roosevelt, aged 11, met Pope Pius IX in Rome and kissed his hand when the Roosevelt family was travelling in Europe. [43]
While Joe Biden was serving as a U.S. Senator, he met with Pope John Paul II on April 12, 1980 at the Vatican. [44] During Biden's tenure as Vice President of the United States, he met Pope Francis on three occasions. Biden led the U.S. delegation at the papal inauguration of Pope Francis in March 2013; he accompanied the pope during the pontiff's visit to the United States in September 2015; and met him at a Vatican conference on cancer research in April 2016. [45] [46]
Then-Vice President George H. W. Bush met Pope John Paul II on September 19, 1987 in Detroit. The pope was concluding a ten-day visit to the United States. [47]
Jacqueline Kennedy was the first First Lady of the United States to meet with a pope independent of her husband, the president. On March 11, 1962, she met with Pope John XXIII at the Vatican while en route to India and Pakistan. [48]
Nancy Reagan met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on May 4, 1985 [49] while President Ronald Reagan was attending the 11th G7 summit in Bonn, West Germany. [50] Mrs. Reagan met the pontiff again on September 16, 1987 in Los Angeles [51] during his ten-day visit to the United States.
Laura Bush and her daughter Barbara Bush met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on February 9, 2006. The First Lady was en route to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. [52]
After leaving office, former Presidents Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore met separately with Pope Pius IX in Rome in 1855. Pius IX also met Franklin Pierce in November 1857. In 1878, Ulysses S. Grant met Pope Leo XIII in the Vatican as part of his post-presidential world tour. [53]
In April 1910, Theodore Roosevelt sought an audience with Pope Pius X. The Pope agreed to see him, provided Roosevelt would not call on some Methodist missionaries in Rome. Roosevelt had no intention of meeting the missionaries, but he declined to submit to Pius X's conditions and the interview did not take place. Theodore Roosevelt called the entire papal episode, "An elegant row." [54]
Pope Benedict XVI was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known as "Pope emeritus" upon his resignation, and he retained this title until his death in December 2022.
Julián Herranz Casado is a Spanish cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as President of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts in the Roman Curia from 1994 to 2007, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.
The current United States Ambassador to the Holy See is Joe Donnelly, who replaced the ad interim Chargé d'Affaires, Patrick Connell, on April 11, 2021. The Holy See is represented by its apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who assumed office on April 12, 2016. The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See is located in Rome, in the Villa Domiziana. The Nunciature to the United States is located in Washington, D.C., at 3339 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Saint John's Tower is a round structure located on a hilltop in the westernmost tip of Vatican City, near Vatican Radio and overlooking the Vatican Gardens. The Medieval tower is located along an ancient wall built by Pope Nicholas III, but it fell into disuse at the beginning of the 16th century. It was rebuilt by Pope John XXIII in the early 1960s.
Holy See–United Kingdom relations are foreign relations between the Holy See and the United Kingdom.
There have been 41 United States presidential visits to Canada by 14 presidents over the past century. As the U.S. president is both head of state and head of government, these visits have taken many forms, ranging from formal state visits to official visits, working visits, or private visits.
Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The first trip by an incumbent president to Eastern Europe was made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. The first trip by an incumbent president to Northern Asia was made by Gerald Ford in 1974, also to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of U.S.–Soviet Détente during the Cold War. The first presidential visits to other Eastern European countries occurred during this era of easing geo-political tensions as well.
Pope Francis visited North America—Cuba and the United States—from 19 to 27 September 2015. It was his first state visit to both Cuba and the U.S., as well as the third official papal visit to Cuba and the seventh to the United States since the U.S. established full diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1984.
Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to the Middle East. The first trips by an incumbent president to countries in the Middle East were those by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and were an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. To date, 16 visits have been made to Egypt, 12 to Saudi Arabia, 11 to Israel, six to both Iraq, Jordan and Turkey, four to Iran, three to the Palestinian Territories, two to both Kuwait and Syria, one to Bahrain, Georgia, Oman, Qatar, and to the United Arab Emirates. No incumbent American president has yet visited Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Yemen.
Eleven United States presidents and one president-elect have made presidential visits to South America. The first trip was made by Herbert Hoover in 1928. During this tour he delivered twenty-five speeches in ten Central and South American countries, almost all of which stressed his plans to reduce American political and military interference in Latin American affairs. In sum, he pledged that the United States would act as a "good neighbor."
Nine United States presidents and one president-elect have made presidential visits to the Caribbean since 1928. Franklin D. Roosevelt made the most trips to the Caribbean islands (14), either for vacation or while involved with Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. Of the 13 sovereign countries in the region, four—Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—have not as of yet been visited by an American president.
Thirteen United States presidents have made presidential visits to Southern Europe. Woodrow Wilson became the first incumbent president to visit a Southern European country in January 1919 in the aftermath of World War I. Visits occurring during the 1940s through 1980s were offshoots of American diplomatic interactions during World War II and then the Cold War.
Holy See–Kurdistan Region relations are bilateral relations between Holy See and Kurdistan Region. The Holy See has no representation in Kurdistan Region and the latter has no representation in the Holy See.
Brazil–Holy See relations are the current and historical relations between Brazil and the Holy See. Catholicism was introduced in Brazil in 1500 by the Portuguese Empire, and it is the country's predominant faith. Brazil also has the world's largest Catholic population. Since the adoption of the Constitution in 1891, Brazil is a secular nation.
President Ronald Reagan shakes hands with Pope John Paul II on Sept. 10, 1987, at Miami International Airport.
On August 12, 1993, Regis University hosted a meeting and press conference with Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton at the Northwest Denver Campus.
The visit...began at Newark International Airport with 2,000 New Jersey parochial school students cheering him like a rock star and President Clinton hailing him as a model pilgrim of peace in a troubled world.
The Holy Father arrived at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, USA...where he was greeted by President William J. Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
June 4, 2004...Pope John Paul II
Waiting for Francis: President Obama, who rarely greets arriving foreign dignitaries on the runway.
The day began with Mr. Obama welcoming the pope at the White House.
President Biden, a devout Catholic who has nonetheless found himself at odds with many faithful over his support of abortion rights, met Friday at the Vatican with Pope Francis, where the leaders discussed climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and global poverty.
A highlight of the trip came for Biden April 12 when he spent 45 minutes alone with Pope John Paul in the pontiff's private library at the Vatican.
Francis greeted the vice president after giving his own address, and the two leaders shook hands and smiled.
Speaking to Vice President George Bush and a farewell crowd amid tight security at Detroit Metropolitan Airport...
The audience was the high point of the first lady's 46-hour visit to Italy. She was to have lunch with U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican William Wilson and his wife, Betty, and then fly back to Bonn, where President Reagan is attending the 11th annual economic summit.
Meet with Pope John Paul II, and Schoolchildren, re: Anti-Drug Program.