Papal visits to the United States

Papal visits to the United States have been made by four popes between 1965 and 2015. There have been a total of 10 trips which included visits to 23 cities in 17 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, three cities in U.S. territories have received papal visits as well.

Precursor events

Pope Pius IX

Pope Pius IX fled Rome and took refuge in the city of Gaeta in November 1848 due to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He remained in Gaeta until September 4, 1849. Pope Pius IX and King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies went onboard the USS Constitution while it was in port at Gaeta on August 1, 1849. As commissioned ships possess extraterritoriality, this was the first time a pope set foot on American territory or its equivalent.[1][2]

Pope Pius XII

Main article: Eugenio Pacelli's 1936 visit to the United States

Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli (the soon-to-be Pope Pius XII) visited the United States from October 8 to November 6, 1936 as Cardinal Secretary of State and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. At the time, Pacelli was the highest-ranking Catholic official ever to visit the United States.[3] Although he did not visit the United States as Pope, he was the first Pope who visited the United States at any time in his life. Pacelli met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the president's home in Hyde Park, New York, on November 5, 1936.[4]

Pope Leo XIV

Robert Francis Prevost, the future Pope Leo XIV, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 14, 1955, and lived in the United States throughout his early years before beginning his missionary work in Peru in 1985. He thus spent time in the country before any reigning pope did.

Visits to the United States by reigning popes

Pope Paul VI

Main article: 1965 visit by Pope Paul VI to the United States

The first papal visit to the United States itself occurred on October 4, 1965, when Pope Paul VI visited New York City to address the United Nations at the invitation of Secretary-General U Thant.[5] During that visit, the Pope first stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral where some 55,000 people lined the streets to greet him,[6] met with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Waldorf Astoria,[7] addressed the United Nations General Assembly, celebrated Mass at Yankee Stadium,[8] and viewed Michelangelo's Pieta at the New York World's Fair in Queens.[5]

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II visited the United States from October 1 to 7, 1979. He arrived in Boston on October 1[9] after a visit to Ireland. The next two days were spent in New York City, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly. The pope later spoke to students gathered at Madison Square Garden, and conducted Mass at the original Yankee Stadium[10][11] for 75,000 people[12] as well as at Shea Stadium to an audience of over 52,000.[13] He arrived in Philadelphia on October 3.[14] The pope traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, and visited the Living History Farms and said Mass to an audience of around 340,000 on October 4, 1979.[15] He traveled to Chicago later that same day, there he celebrated Mass in Grant Park, met with civic leaders and Chicago's Polish community. Chicago was the largest Catholic archdiocese in the United States at the time and the home of the largest Polish community outside of Poland.[16] He concluded his pilgrimage to the U.S. in Washington, D.C., where he became the first pope to visit the White House where he met with President Jimmy Carter.[17]

John Paul II made two stopovers in Alaska. The first occurred in Anchorage on February 26, 1981 following a trip to Asia and the second was in Fairbanks on May 2, 1984,[17] which included a meeting with President Ronald Reagan.[18]

A large-scale visit was carried out from September 10 to 19, 1987.[17] John Paul II first traveled to Miami, where he met with President Reagan at the Vizcaya Museum. A Mass at Tamiami Park was cut short before the pope could give Communion, due to a lightning storm that made it unsafe to continue. Meeting with local Jewish leaders at Miami's Center for the Fine Arts, John Paul II condemned antisemitism but did not apologize for a recent meeting with Austrian president and former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, whose involvement in Nazi war crimes had been exposed months earlier.[19][20][21]

The pope spent five hours in Columbia, South Carolina, meeting with Protestant leaders at Williams–Brice Stadium in an area with a very small Catholic population, and briefly greeting former president Jimmy Carter at the airport.[22] In New Orleans, the pope condemned racism in a convocation at Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation's only historically black Catholic university. He held another outdoor Mass at New Orleans University, held a youth rally at the Superdome, and traveled in a motorcade down the city's famed Mardi Gras parade route.[23] The pope addressed immigration from Mexico and celebrated Sunday Mass in San Antonio, Texas, where a temporary altar built for the service collapsed days before and had to be quickly rebuilt.[24] At the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, John Paul II spoke to 16,000 Native American Catholics and defended the controversial decision to consider Junípero Serra, a Spanish missionary who helped to colonize California, for sainthood.[25] In Los Angeles, the pope warned a gathering of entertainment industry leaders to use their immense influence responsibly,[26] and he instructed a conference of 300 American bishops to strictly follow church doctrine even where it is unpopular with the laity, particularly regarding issues such as divorce, abortion, and homosexuality.[27] John Paul II discussed agricultural labor issues and acknowledged the 200th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution while speaking at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California.[28] In San Francisco, the pope met with AIDS patients at the Mission Dolores Basilica, many of them gay men, and celebrated Mass at Candlestick Park.[29] The pope's final stop on this trip was in Detroit, where he greeted the Polish-American community in Hamtramck and celebrated the last Mass of the journey at the Pontiac Silverdome. Vice President George H. W. Bush met with the pope before his departure on September 19, 1987.[30] During the 10-day visit to the United States, crowds were significantly less than during the 1979 tour, and extensive preparations to maintain order and divert traffic sometimes proved unnecessary.[31]

The pope visited Denver from August 10 to 15, 1993 for World Youth Day 1993[17] and met President Bill Clinton at Regis University.[32]

Another multi-city visit occurred October 4–9, 1995 when the pope traveled to Newark, East Rutherford, New York City,[33] Yonkers,[34] and Baltimore.[17][35] This visit included an address to the United Nations on the 50th anniversary of its establishment[36] and a Mass at Giants Stadium before a crowd of 82,948, the second-largest to ever attend an event at Giants Stadium.

John Paul II's final visit to the United States was to St. Louis, Missouri, on January 26–27, 1999, as a stop on his return from a trip to Mexico City.[17][37] Conducting Mass at the Trans World Dome, the pope criticized the death penalty and urged clemency for Darrell Mease, a Missouri prisoner who had been scheduled for execution on January 27. Mease's execution was postponed and ultimately canceled by Missouri governor Mel Carnahan, who said that meeting with the pope had convinced him to commute the sentence.[38][39]

Pope Benedict XVI

Main article: 2008 visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United States

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States took place from April 15 to 20, 2008. It was his only visit to the United States.[40]

Pope Francis

Main article: 2015 visit by Pope Francis to North America

Pope Francis's visit to the United States consisted of three cities: Washington, D.C., New York City including his visit to the United Nations, and Philadelphia which hosted the World Meeting of Families. He became the first pope to address a joint session of the United States Congress, at the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Catholics.[41]

Visits to territories of the United States

Pope Paul VI visited Pago Pago, American Samoa, on November 30, 1970, as part of his tour of Asia and Oceania.[42]

Pope John Paul II visited Agaña,[Note 1] Guam on February 22–23, 1981,[43] and San Juan, Puerto Rico, on October 12, 1984.[44]

Tables

Table of destinations in the United States

City State or district NV Pope and year of visit
(Note: column sorts by date of first visit, not by pope's name.)
Anchorage Alaska
1
 1981-02-26John Paul II 1981
Baltimore Maryland
1
 1995-10-08John Paul II 1995
Boston Massachusetts
1
 1979-10-01John Paul II 1979
Chicago Illinois
1
 1979-10-04 PMJohn Paul II 1979
Columbia South Carolina
1
 1987-09-11John Paul II 1987
Denver Colorado
1
 1993-08-12John Paul II 1993
Des Moines Iowa
1
 1979-10-04 AMJohn Paul II 1979
Detroit Michigan
1
 1987-09-18John Paul II 1987
East Rutherford New Jersey
1
 1995-10-05 PMJohn Paul II 1995
Fairbanks Alaska
1
 1984-05-02John Paul II 1984
Los Angeles California
1
 1987-09-15John Paul II 1987
Miami Florida
1
 1987-09-10John Paul II 1987
Monterey California
1
 1987-09-17 AMJohn Paul II 1987
New Orleans Louisiana
1
 1987-09-12John Paul II 1987
New York City New York
5
 1965-10-04Paul VI 1965 • John Paul II 1979, 1995 • Benedict XVI 2008 • Francis 2015
Newark New Jersey
1
 1995-10-04John Paul II 1995
Philadelphia Pennsylvania
2
 1979-10-03John Paul II 1979 • Francis 2015
Phoenix Arizona
1
 1987-09-14John Paul II 1987
St. Louis Missouri
1
 1999-01-26John Paul II 1999
San Antonio Texas
1
 1987-09-13John Paul II 1987
San Francisco California
1
 1987-09-17 PMJohn Paul II 1987
Washington District of Columbia
3
 1979-10-06John Paul II 1979 • Benedict XVI 2008 • Francis 2015
Yonkers New York
1
 1995-10-06John Paul II 1995

Table of destinations in the territories of the United States

City Territory NV Pope and year of visit
(Note: column sorts by date of first visit, not by pope's name.)
Agaña [Note 1] Guam
1
 1981-02-22John Paul II 1981
Pago Pago American Samoa
1
 1970-11-30Paul VI 1970
San Juan Puerto Rico
1
 1984-10-12John Paul II 1984
  1. ^ a b Name was changed from Agaña to Hagåtña in 1998.

See also

References

  1. ^ Martin, Tyrone G. (December 2001). "The Pope's First American Visit". www.usni.org. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. Archived from the original on April 15, 2025. The occasion was the first time a pope set foot on U.S. territory. (A commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy has the same legal status as a piece of U.S. soil, in the same way any of its embassies around the world does.)
  2. ^ Brenckle, Matthew (September 23, 2015). "The Pope Deck". ussconstitutionmuseum.org. Boston, Massachusetts: USS Constitution Museum. Archived from the original on March 12, 2025. While Pope Paul VI's whirlwind trip in 1965 was the first time a pontiff set foot in the United States proper, he was not the first to traipse on American territory. Thanks to a bit of legal contortionism that honor goes to Pope Pius IX in 1849! You see, a nation's warships are considered sovereign territory, and so to walk the decks of an American naval vessel is to tread on American "soil."
  3. ^ The New York Times. 1936, October 9. "Cardinal Pacelli, Papal Envoy, Here". p. 1.
  4. ^ The New York Times. 1936, November 6. "Pacelli Lunches With Roosevelt". p. 1.
  5. ^ a b McDonnell, Claudia (July 8, 2015). "Archives Showcases New York Visit Of Pope Paul VI 50 Years Ago". Catholic New York. Archived from the original on April 16, 2020.
  6. ^ "Four Popes Now Memorialized in the North and South Vestibules of St. Patrick's Cathedral". Saintpatrickscathedral.org. December 4, 2018. Archived from the original on April 16, 2020.
  7. ^ Rothman, Lily (September 21, 2015). "The First Time a Pope Visited the U.S. Was Much More Complicated". Time. Archived from the original on April 16, 2020.
  8. ^ "Homily of The Holy Father Paul VI Yankee Stadium, New York Monday, 4 October 1965". Vatican.va. Archived from the original on April 16, 2020.
  9. ^ Brown, Steve (October 1, 2009). "Remembering A Different Boston, 30 Years After Pope's Historic Visit". www.wbur.org. Archived from the original on July 8, 2023. On Oct. 1, 1979, Pope John Paul II received a rock star's welcome in Boston.
  10. ^ "Holy Mass at Yankee Stadium – Homily of His Holiness Pope John Paul II". Vatican.va. Archived from the original on March 3, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  11. ^ McShane, Larry (March 30, 2008). "Final papal visit to Yankee Stadium will pack 'em in". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2013. Benedict becomes the third Pope to say Mass in the iconic ballpark, joining Pope Paul VI in 1965 and Pope John Paul II in 1979.
  12. ^ Weigel, George (2005). Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. Harper Perennial. p. 350. ISBN 0060732032. On the night of his UN address, John Paul celebrated Mass for 75,000 in Yankee Stadium.
  13. ^ Miner, Colin (April 4, 2005). "Pontiff Made a Pair of Colorful NYC Visits". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
  14. ^ Patel, Neema Roshania (September 17, 2015). "A look back at Pope John Paul II's visit to Philadelphia in 1979". whyy.org. Archived from the original on January 19, 2025.
  15. ^ Avella, Steven M. (2018). The Catholic Church in Southwest Iowa. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press. p. 345. ISBN 9780814644713.
  16. ^ Davis, Robert (October 5, 1979). "Pope John Paul II in Chicago". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 16, 2013.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Walsh, Mary Ann (2003). "Essential Resources: Visits to the United States". John Paul II: A Light for the World, Essays and Reflections on the Papacy of John Paul II. Lanham, Maryland: Sheed and Ward. p. 235. ISBN 978-1580511421.
  18. ^ "Remarks at the Welcoming Ceremony for Pope John Paul II in Fairbanks, Alaska May 2, 1984". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Archived from the original on August 4, 2011.
  19. ^ Walsh, Kenneth (March 27, 2014). "Ronald Reagan and John Paul II: A Primer on Papal Diplomacy". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on June 5, 2019. President Ronald Reagan shakes hands with Pope John Paul II on Sept. 10, 1987, at Miami International Airport.
  20. ^ "Trip to Florida. Cuts of Remarks by President Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Vizcaya Museum". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022.
  21. ^ "Pontiff, Jews clear the air; Mass cut short by rain, lightning", Miami Herald, September 12, 1987, front page.
  22. ^ "Pope preaches harmony; Carter, pope have three-minute visit", The State, September 12, 1987, front page.
  23. ^ "Pope's message one of forgiveness; New Orleans crowd behaves for pope", Sun Herald, September 13, 1987.
  24. ^ Associated Press. "Large crowd greets pope", San Angelo Standard-Times, September 14, 1987, front page and page 4A.
  25. ^ Shaffer, Mark. "Pontiff warms Valley's heart", Arizona Republic, September 15, 1987, front page.
  26. ^ "Pope Is Greeted With Enthusiasm, Stresses Morality; Entertainment, Media Leaders' Power Cited", Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1987, front page.
  27. ^ "Moral Issue Dissent a Grave Error, Pope Says: Catholics Can't Be Selective on Doctrine, He Tells Bishops; Pope Stern With Bishops and Tender With Children", Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1987, front page.
  28. ^ Lollar, Kevin, and Jeannie Echenique. "Pope urges respect on farm: Pontiff shares concerns on ag with Seca crowd", Salinas Californian, September 17, 1987, front page.
  29. ^ "Pope embraces The City: Mass for 67,000 at Candlestick Park, Emotional meeting with AIDS patients; More voices ask for bigger role; AIDS patients: A touching of spirits", San Francisco Examiner, September 18, 1987, front page.
  30. ^ Schanche, Don A.; Secter, Bob (September 20, 1987). "The Papal Visit: Pope Urges U.S. to Ban Abortions: Departure Speech in Detroit Contains Warning, Praise". www.latimes.com. Archived from the original on March 27, 2022. Speaking to Vice President George Bush and a farewell crowd amid tight security at Detroit Metropolitan Airport...
  31. ^ "Pope reaches out to Detroit: Theories very on reasons for crowds that fell short; Triumphal Pontiac mass caps pontiff's U.S. tour", Detroit Free Press, September 20, 1987, front page.
  32. ^ "Regis Hosted a Landmark Meeting". Regis University.edu. n.d. Archived from the original on September 16, 2019. Retrieved September 16, 2019. 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.
  33. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (October 8, 1995). "The Pope's Visit: The Overview; 125,000 Join Pope at Mass In Central Park 'Basilica'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015.
  34. ^ Berger, Joseph (October 7, 1995). "The Pope's Visit: The Scene:Yonkers Turns Out To Glimpse John Paul II". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 29, 2023.
  35. ^ Matysek Jr., George P. (October 7, 2020). "St. John Paul II's historic visit to Baltimore 25 years ago put spotlight on Premier See". catholicreview.org. Archived from the original on January 14, 2025.
  36. ^ United Nations General Assembly Session 50 Verbotim Report 20. A/50/PV.20 page 2. His Holiness Pope John Paul II Holy See October 5, 1995. Retrieved accessdate.
  37. ^ "Visit to St. Louis 99: Arrival Message". EWTN. January 26, 1999. Archived from the original on September 15, 2019. 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.
  38. ^ "John Paul II leads faithful in worship: 'I will always remember St. Louis.'; Pope asks Carnahan to commute death sentence", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 28, 1999, front page.
  39. ^ "Carnahan spares murderer's life: Brief meeting with pope led governor to cancel execution", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 29, 1999, front page.
  40. ^ Parker, Jennifer; Blakemore, Bill (April 15, 2008). "Bush Embraces Pope Benedict XVI". ABC News. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  41. ^ "Pope Francis, in Congress, Pleads for Unity on World's Woes". The New York Times. September 24, 2015.
  42. ^ Hofmann, Paul (November 30, 1970). "Pope Paul Makes Brief Samoa Visit on Way to Sydney". www.nytimes.com. Pope Paul VI made a four‐hour visit today to this American island and to the independent state of Western Samoa on his way from Manila to Sydney, Australia.
  43. ^ "February 1981, Pope John Paul II Visited Guam". www.guammuseumfoundation.org. March 27, 2024. Archived from the original on December 3, 2024.
  44. ^ Nordheimer, Jon (October 12, 1984). "Puerto Rico is Prepared to Greet the Pope Today". www.nytimes.com.
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