The Pope as statesman… to the US and the human family
In the 230-some-year history of the United States, papal visits have been rare and very recent. The first pope to visit America was Pope Paul VI in 1965. Largely unknown, however, was a near-papal visit three decades earlier, when, in November 1936, a prominent Vatican official named Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli arrived on U.S. shores after setting sail all the way from Naples.