# List of meetings between the pope and the president of the United States

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 32 meetings between six popes and 14 U.S. presidents over the past century.

## Meetings

| No. | Date | Site | City | Country | President | Pope | Notes |
| 1 | January 4, 1919 | Apostolic Palace | 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 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Dwight D. Eisenhower | John XXIII | |
| 3 | July 2, 1963 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | 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 | United States | Lyndon B. Johnson | Paul VI | 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. |
| 5 | December 23, 1967 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Lyndon B. Johnson | Paul VI | Unannounced stop at the end of the president's visit to Australia and Asia. |
| 6 | March 2, 1969 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Richard Nixon | Paul VI | |
| 7 | September 29, 1970 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Richard Nixon | Paul VI | |
| 8 | June 3, 1975 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Gerald Ford | Paul VI | |
| 9 | October 6, 1979 | White House | Washington, D.C. | United States | Jimmy Carter | John Paul II | First visit by a pope to the White House. |
| 10 | June 21, 1980 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Jimmy Carter | John Paul II | |
| 11 | June 7, 1982 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Ronald Reagan | John Paul II | |
| 12 | May 2, 1984 | Fairbanks International Airport | Fairbanks, Alaska | United States | Ronald Reagan | John Paul II | 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. |
| 13 | June 6, 1987 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Ronald Reagan | John Paul II | |
| 14 | September 10, 1987 | Miami International Airport and the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens | Miami, Florida | United States | Ronald Reagan | John Paul II | |
| 15 | May 27, 1989 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | George H. W. Bush | John Paul II | |
| 16 | November 8, 1991 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | George H. W. Bush | John Paul II | |
| 17 | August 12, 1993 | Regis University | Denver, Colorado | United States | Bill Clinton | John Paul II | Both leaders addressed thousands of young students at World Youth Day. |
| 18 | June 2, 1994 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Bill Clinton | John Paul II | |
| 19 | October 4, 1995 | Newark Liberty International Airport | Newark, New Jersey | United States | Bill Clinton | John Paul II | |
| 20 | January 26, 1999 | St. Louis Lambert International Airport | St. Louis, Missouri | United States | Bill Clinton | John Paul II | |
| 21 | July 23, 2001 | Palace of Castel Gandolfo | Castel Gandolfo | Italy | George W. Bush | John Paul II | |
| 22 | May 28, 2002 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | George W. Bush | John Paul II | |
| 23 | June 4, 2004 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | George W. Bush | John Paul II | President Bush presented Pope John Paul II with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. |
| 24 | June 9, 2007 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | George W. Bush | Benedict XVI | |
| 25 | April 15–16, 2008 | White House | Washington, D.C. | United States | George W. Bush | Benedict XVI | Further information: 2008 visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United States |
| 26 | June 13, 2008 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | George W. Bush | Benedict XVI | |
| 27 | July 10, 2009 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Barack Obama | Benedict XVI | |
| 28 | March 27, 2014 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Barack Obama | Francis | |
| 29 | September 22–23, 2015 | White House | Washington, D.C. | United States | Barack Obama | Francis | Further information: 2015 visit by Pope Francis to North America |
| 30 | May 24, 2017 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Donald Trump | Francis | Occurred during President Trump's visit to Israel, the West Bank, Italy, and Saudi Arabia. The meeting proceeded amicably despite prior public disagreements between the two on environmental policy and Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. |
| 31 | October 29, 2021 | Vatican City | Vatican City | Vatican City | Joe Biden | Francis | 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. |
| 32 | June 14, 2024 | Borgo Egnazia | Fasano | Italy | Joe Biden | Francis | President Biden and Pope Francis participated in the 50th G7 summit and later held a bilateral meeting. |

## Gallery

* President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan with Pope John Paul II, June 7, 1982
* 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
* President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump with Pope Francis, May 24, 2017

## Other meetings
### Future popes meeting the president

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.
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. Bush was the first incumbent U.S. president to attend a papal funeral.

### Future presidents meeting the pope

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.
While Joe Biden was serving as a U.S. Senator, he met with Pope John Paul II on April 12, 1980 at the Vatican. 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.
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.

### First ladies meeting the pope

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.
Nancy Reagan met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on May 4, 1985 while President Ronald Reagan was attending the 11th G7 summit in Bonn, West Germany. Mrs. Reagan met the pontiff again on September 16, 1987 in Los Angeles 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.

### Former presidents meeting the pope

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.
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."