Fifty years after the first papal visit to the US, Pope Francis makes a three-city tour of the country which includes attending the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
The first reigning pontiff to visit the United States was Pope Paul VI, who made a one-day stop in New York to address to the United Nations in 1965. Here he called on the UN to declare ‘no more war.’
The Guardian’s response to the speech was to be found in the editorial, Peace-loving is not enough. Elsewhere in the paper, Hella Pick noted that the Pope’s long handshake and seemingly friendly conversation with the Soviet foreign minister was subject to wide comment. Meanwhile, when the pope celebrated mass at the Yankee Stadium, Alistair Cooke reported that the ‘great, garish pit [was ] translated overnight into a circular cathedral.’
Fourteen years later, Pope John Paul II made the first of seven visits to the US.
Photograph: The Guardian
After a 2,300 mile tour of America that included a visit to Harlem and a speech endorsing the conservative line on sex issues, Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the White House.
Photograph: The Guardian
Other visits included a stopover in Fairbanks, Alaska in May 1984, where he met President Ronald Reagan.
In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington and New York. Making his first visit to the US since his election in 2005, he was greeted on the White House lawn by the president, George Bush, plus a 21-gun salute and a serenade from a world-class opera singer.
The 265th pope gave a resounding endorsement of the role of religion in democratic society telling a crowd of thousands that ‘the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever’ in an age of extremism and terror. The following day he addressed the UN general assembly.
Visiting the US at the same time was Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, but, as Stephen Bates noted, he was never going to dominate the news agenda as ‘passing popes will always outrank prime ministers.’
