United States presidential visits to Italy and Vatican City

President John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic elected president, with Pope Paul VI, July 1963

There have been twenty U.S. presidential visits to Italy and Vatican City, plus an additional nine to Italy alone, by thirteen incumbent United States presidents, since 1919. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to have visited Italy but never the Vatican while in office. His lone presidential trip to Italy was confined to the Island of Sicily, and occurred shortly after its liberation from the Axis powers (Italy and Nazi Germany) during World War II. Every president since Dwight Eisenhower has visited both countries at least once during their presidency.

Table of visits

President Dates Country Locations Highlights
Woodrow Wilson[1] January 1–6, 1919  Italy Rome,
Genoa,
Milan,
Turin		 Met with King Victor Emmanuel III and Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando.
January 4, 1919 Papal States the Vatican Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Benedict XV.
Franklin D. Roosevelt[2] December 8, 1943  Italy Castelvetrano Visited Allied military installations.
Dwight D. Eisenhower[3] December 4-6, 1959  Italy Rome Informal Visit. Met with President Giovanni Gronchi.
December 6, 1959   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope John XXIII.
John F. Kennedy[4] July 1–2, 1963  Italy Rome,
Naples 		Met with President Antonio Segni, Italian and NATO officials.
July 2, 1963   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Paul VI.
Lyndon B. Johnson[5] December 23, 1967  Italy Rome Met with President Giuseppe Saragat and Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
December 23, 1967   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Paul VI.
Richard M. Nixon[6] February 27–28, 1969  Italy Rome Met with President Giuseppe Saragat and Prime Minister Mariano Rumor and other officials.
March 2, 1969   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Paul VI.
September 27–30, 1970  Italy Rome,
Naples		 Official Visit. Met with President Giuseppe Saragat. Visited NATO Southern Command.
September 28, 1970   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Paul VI.
Gerald Ford[7] June 3, 1975  Italy Rome Met with President Giovanni Leone and Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
June 3, 1975   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Paul VI.
Jimmy Carter[8] June 19–24, 1980  Italy Rome,
Venice		 Attended the 6th G7 summit. State Visit. Met with President Sandro Pertini.
June 21, 1980   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope John Paul II.
Ronald Reagan[9] June 7, 1982  Italy Rome State Visit. Met with President Sandro Pertini and Premier Giovanni Spadolini.
June 7, 1982   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope John Paul II.
June 3–11, 1987  Italy Venice,
Rome		 Attended the 13th G7 summit. Met with President Francesco Cossiga and Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani in Rome.
June 6, 1987   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope John Paul II.
George H. W. Bush[10] May 26–28, 1989  Italy Rome,
Nettuno 		Met with President Francesco Cossiga and Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita.
May 27, 1989   Vatican City Apostolic Palice Audience with Pope John Paul II.
November 6–8, 1991  Italy Rome Attended the NATO Summit Meeting.
November 8, 1991   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope John Paul II.
Bill Clinton[11] June 2–4, 1994  Italy Rome,
Nettuno		 Met with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Visited U.S. Military Cemetery.
June 2, 1994   Vatican City apostolic Palace Audience with Pope John Paul II.
July 7–10, 1994  Italy Naples Attended the 20th G7 summit. Met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
January 13, 1996 Aviano Air Base Met with U.S. military personnel.
December 22, 1997 Aviano Air Base Stopped en route to and from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
June 22, 1999 Aviano Air Base Addressed U.S. military personnel.
July 29–30, 1999 Aviano Air Base Stopped en route to Sarajevo.
November 20–21, 1999 Florence Attended conference on Progressive Governance for the 21st Century.
March 18, 2000 Aviano Air Base Stopped en route to India.
George W. Bush[12] July 20–24, 2001  Italy Genoa,
Castel Gandolfo,
Rome		 Attended the 27th G8 summit. Met with Pope John Paul II. Also met with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
May 27–28, 2002 Rome Met with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Attended the NATO Summit Meeting and inaugurated the NATO-Russia Council.
May 28, 2002   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope John Paul II.
June 4–5, 2004  Italy Rome Met with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
June 4, 2004   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Met with Pope John Paul II.
April 6–8, 2005 St. Peter's Basilica Attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
April 6–8, 2005  Italy Rome Met with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
June 8–10, 2007 Rome Met with President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
June 9, 2007   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
June 11–13, 2008  Italy Rome Met with President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
June 13, 2008   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Met with Pope Benedict XVI.
Barack Obama July 8–10, 2009  Italy L'Aquila,
Rome		 Attended the 35th G8 summit. Also met with the leaders of Angola, Algeria, Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and various international organizations.[13]
July 10, 2009   Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Benedict XVI.[13]
March 27, 2014 Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Francis.[14]
March 27, 2014  Italy Rome Met with President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Visited the Roman Colosseum.

Visits of former presidents

Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore each met (separately) with Pope Pius IX in Rome in 1855, as did Franklin Pierce in November 1857.[15] Ulysses S. Grant met with Pope Leo XIII in the Vatican in 1878, during a world tour after leaving the presidency.[16]

Theodore Roosevelt sought an audience with Pope Pius X in April 1910 while in Rome. 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 the pope's conditions and the interview did not take place.[17]

Former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton accompanied President George W. Bush to the funeral of Pope John Paul II in April 2005.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Travels of President Woodrow Wilson". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  2. ↑ "Travels of President Franklin D. Roosevelt". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  3. ↑ "Travels of President Dwight D. Eisenhower". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  4. ↑ "Travels of President John F. Kennedy". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  5. ↑ "Travels of President Lyndon B. Johnson". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  6. ↑ "Travels of President Richard M. Nixon". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  7. ↑ "Travels of President Gerald R. Ford". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  8. ↑ "Travels of President Jimmy Carter". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  9. ↑ "Travels of President Ronald Reagan". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  10. ↑ "Travels of President George H. W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
  11. ↑ "Travels of President William J. Clinton". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
  12. ↑ Travels of President George W. Bush U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian WebCitation archive
  13. 1 2 "Travels of President Barack Obama". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  14. ↑ Abdullah, Halimah (March 27, 2014). "Obama, Pope Francis meet for first time". CNN. Archived from the original on March 27, 2014.
  15. ↑ DeGregorio, William A. The Complete Book of US Presidents W.W. Norton 1989 ISBN 978-1-56980-286-1
  16. ↑ McFeely, William S. (1981). Grant: A Biography. Norton. pp. 466–467. ISBN 0-393-01372-3.
  17. ↑ Durant, John and Alice Pictorial History of American Presidents A. S. Barnes and Company 1955 p. 216
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