Pope to the White House -- a scene once unthinkable
This week's Oval Office meeting between Barack Obama and Pope Francis will be the 29th encounter between a Catholic pontiff and a US president. But for decades such a meeting was improbable.
Obama, a Protestant, has been effusive in his praise for the pontiff, but many previous US presidents have been more cautious. Mistrust had long colored relations between the United States and the Vatican.
American Catholics -- largely of Irish, Italian, Polish and Hispanic extraction -- have been accused of having more loyalty to Rome than their homeland.
"The United States had a long history of anti-Catholicism since the first settlers were mostly Protestants who brought with them their disdain for Catholicism," said Thomas Reese, a senior analyst for National Catholic Reporter....