![]() ![]() People close to the pope said he “wept uncontrollably” at the news and later publicly condemned Kennedy’s assassination. Five months after the visit, Kennedy was fatally shot. ![]() Instead, Kennedy and Pope Paul VI exchanged a firm handshake during their meeting and spoke in English. president would follow Catholic protocol and bow to kiss the pope’s ring. The media at the time questioned whether the U.S. ![]() Anti-Catholic sentiment remained strong in the U.S., and even before his visit, cartoons popped up showing Kennedy bowing to the pope in Rome. Kennedy faced significant scrutiny back home for how he would handle his July 1963 meeting with Pope Paul VI. Kennedy meets with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in July 1963. Eisenhower and Pope John XXIII: ‘That was a beaut!’ The evolving contours of these visions would go on to define the relationship for a century. president and a pope was also a meeting of two global visions for peace, at times opposing and sometimes aligned. Some observers at the time suggested Wilson felt as if the frail Italian pontiff had stolen his thunder by releasing his vision first. In January of 1918, Wilson pronounced his 14 points for the establishment of a new postwar world. The pontiff at the time, Pope Benedict XV, had spoken fervently against war and in 1917 wrote a letter “to the Heads of State of the Belligerent Peoples,” which outlined a plan for peace and reconstruction for Europe and beyond. 4, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson became the first American head of state to meet with a pope at the Vatican, during a European tour in the aftermath of World War I, which had left the continent in shambles and rife with tensions. Wilson and Pope Benedict XV: Competing for peace The meeting is expected to be cordial, focusing on what the two have in common, but historically the relationship between the Vatican and the Oval Office has often been tense - even occasionally hostile.įrom public reprimands to diplomatic faux pas, Religion News Service takes a look back at the history of meetings between popes and U.S. president to meet a pontiff at the Vatican, and the Eternal City is bubbling with speculation over what the two are likely to discuss. It will be the first in-person meeting between the pontiff and the Catholic head of state since Biden’s election.īiden is the 14 th U.S. 29), Pope Francis is set to hold a highly anticipated private audience with President Joe Biden at the Vatican. Two decades later, Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti – now a Cardinal of the Catholic Church – was elected to the throne of Peter, taking the name Pius IX – and became the first Roman Pontiff to have ever set foot in the new world.VATICAN CITY (RNS) - On Friday (Oct. ![]() Ultimately, however, the hostility of the Chilean leaders meant the diplomatic mission of the pontifical party was a failure, and Don Mastai-Ferretti sailed for home – despite an ardent desire to remain as a missionary amongst the poor peasants who lived “almost at the ends of the earth.” During his time in Chile, Father Mastai visited the different parishes, celebrating Mass and hearing Confessions, and even acting as a Confirmation sponsor for the son of a janitor. The young priest took an active interest in their religious life, and strove to understand their traditions and mentality, including the different aspects of their daily life. After some time in Argentina, the mission crossed overland to Chile, an arduous journey that took them across the Andes, the second-highest mountain range in the world.Īrriving in Chile, however, they found that Bernardo O’Higgins, the young nation’s Supreme Director – whose embassy to the Pope had prompted their journey – had been overthrown, and replaced with a new leader who did not share his predecessor’s concern for the Church.ĭespite the unfriendly posture of the civil authorities, Don Mastai-Ferretti found a warm welcome among the people. After three months at sea, the small party landed at Montevideo, in what is now Uruguay, and proceeded to Buenos Aires – the birthplace, more than a century later, of Pope Francis.Īt each stop, the visitors from Rome held confirmations and gave religious instruction to the local people. But almost 200 years earlier, a young Italian priest set out from Rome for the distant country – and became the first future Pope to set foot on the American continent.įather Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti – known as Don Mastai – was a young priest, just over thirty years old, when he was chosen by Pope Pius VII in 1823 as part of a mission to the new South American nation of Chile.Īt the time, the voyage to South America was a difficult one, with the pontifical mission facing storms, political revolution, and even piracy as they made their way across the Atlantic Ocean. Pope Francis is following in the footsteps of his predecessor St John Paul II, becoming only the second reigning Pope to visit the South American nation of Chile. ![]()
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