American Presidents & Our Popes

U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Archbishop Gennaro Verolino, secretary of the Vatican Ceremonial Congregation, are in the courtyard of St. Damasus of the Vatican Palace.

Pope Paul VI spreads arms in a welcoming gesture as he receives President John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic President of the United States, for their historic meeting in the Apostolic Palace.

President Kennedy was ushered into the private library of the newly-crowned Pontiff for a talk presumably centering on their mutual hopes for world peace.

Among those also present were Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and the President’s sister, Jean Kennedy.

President Kennedy was the first Catholic president and as such, dealt with concerns his election would give the the pope a greater political role.  He was cautious as to when he and Pope Paul VI would meet.  That occurred near the end of his first term, July 2, 1963.

President Ronald Reagan and his wife, first lady Nancy Reagan, meet Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on June 7, 1982.

Woodrow Wilson was the first president to meet a pope when he met Benedict XV on January 4, 1919, at the end of WW I.  Benedict had sought the meeting in hope that the Vatican would be included in the Treaty of Versailles.  Sadly, Wilson supported Italy’s request to exclude the Vatican.

After leaving office President Ulysses Grant visited Pope Leo XIII at the Vatican in 1878.

WW II prevented President Roosevelt from meeting Pope Pius XI, but he did meet Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli in 1936  three years before Pacelli became Pope Pius XII.

The Photo: Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli before the meeting with President Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York. From left to right: Count Enrico Galeazzi, Joseph P. Kennedy, Msgr. Stephen Donahue, Marvin H. McIntyre and Frank Comerford Walker.

At President Harry Truman’s request, former President Herbert Hoover in 1946 met with Pius XII.  Truman himself met with Pope Pius XII in 1956.

President Dwight Eisenhower met Pope St. John XXIII in 1959.

Pope St. Paul VI was the first pope to meet a president in the United States when he traveled to New York in 1964 and met with President Lyndon Johnson.

President Carter was the first president to meet a pope in the White House.

A special note of thanks to The Little White Book series coming out of the diocese of Saginaw, MI for calling our attention to this date and information.  

https://www.manta.com/cp/mx3xgd4/537f7acee5b95e810498ee86/the-little-white-book-for-easter