The tradition began with President Woodrow Wilson and Pope Benedict XV at the Vatican while Wilson was in Europe managing the end of World War I in 1919.  There was a public dispute between the two men; the Italian pontiff advocated for peace in 1917 but was rebuffed by Wilson .  However, Wilson adapted much of Pope Benedict XV’s plea for peace proposal for his “Fourteen Lights” peace initiative.

It would be 40 years before a president and a pope would meet again, when President Dwight Eisenhower and Pope John XXIII met at the Vatican in 1959.  Following that meeting, the leaders of the United States and the Vatican would meet more frequently. 

The nation’s first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, met with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1963, four months before Kennedy’s assassination.  Pope Paul VI would meet with several other presidents during his papacy, becoming the first pope to visit the United States and speak at the United Nations in 1965.  During that visit, the pope met with President Lyndon Johnson in New York City .  Pope Paul VI would go on to meet with presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Pope John Paul II’s historic tenure in the papacy included the most meetings with presidents at many different locations.  Pope John Paul II met with Jimmy Carter twice, at the White House in 1979 and at the Vatican the following year.  President Ronald Reagan met with Pope John Paul II four times, twice at the Vatican , once in Miami and once in Fairbanks , Alaska . 

President George H.W. Bush had two meetings with the pope, both at the Vatican .  Both presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had four official meetings with Pope John Paul II at various locations in the United States and Italy .  The current president also attended Pope John Paul II’s funeral at the Vatican in 2005.

After Pope Benedict XVI’s installation in May 2005, Bush met with the pope on June 9, 2007, at the Vatican .  The two had “cordial discussions” about Christians in Iraq , peace in the Middle East and current conditions in Africa .

Pope Benedict XVI’s first papal visit to the United States marked another first for the presidency of Bush, as it was the first time the current president met with a visiting dignitary as he stepped off the plane when the pope arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., on April 15.