On the occasion of St. John Paul II’s 1984 visit to Fairbanks, Alaska, at the start of a trip to Far East nations, President Ronald Reagan highlighted the pontiff’s work to ensure “rights and dignity of the individual and for peace among nations,” and committed the United States to that cause.
“In a violent world, your Holiness, you have been a minister of peace and love. Your words, your prayers, your example have made you — for those who suffer oppression or the violence of war — a source of solace, inspiration, and hope,” Reagan said. “For this historic ministry the American people are grateful to you, and we wish you every encouragement in your journeys for peace and understanding in the world.”
The pope acknowledged Reagan was just returning from his own — as Reagan described — “mission of peace” in China, thanked the president for his kind welcome and reaffirmed their friendship. He otherwise didn’t speak much about Reagan but echoed the sentiment about the importance of justice and peace, saying that the diversity of Fairbanks “provides the context in which each person, each family, each ethnic group is challenged to live in harmony and concord.”
The harmony in the remarks encapsulates the relationship the two shared. It was a relationship that began with a meeting in 1982 and proved a significant one as it restored diplomatic ties between the United States and the Vatican in 1984 and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On Aug. 31, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute opened a new exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on “The Pope and The President,” which shares “the story of President Reagan and St. John Paul II’s collaboration, friendship and legacies and feature many items throughout their relationship,” according to the institute.
The exhibit, supported by the Knights of Columbus and others, features eight overview panels, each dedicated to a different chapter of St. John Paul’s life, beginning with his childhood. The panels also highlight when he joined the priesthood and his first meeting with Reagan.
Additional objects in the exhibit include:
- Documents preceding the four meetings between Reagan and St. John Paul.
- Clothing items worn by Nancy Reagan when meeting with the pope; souvenirs from the 1984 meeting in Alaska, including medals from the pontiff; and several gifts from St. John Paul to the Reagans.
- A pair of Louis XIV-style armchairs used by Reagan and the pope.
- A certificate granting St. John Paul’s papal blessing to Reagan and his family and a Bible gifted to Reagan by the pontiff.
- A collage of original signatures of both Reagan and St. John Paul.
- The 1998 Cadillac DeVille Paraded Phaeton “Popemobile,” custom-built for the pope.
- A ciborium used during St. John Paul’s 1987 visit to Los Angeles.
St. John Paul and Reagan met in person four times. Their first meeting was at the Vatican on June 7, 1982. They met for the second time in Fairbanks on May 2, 1984, and for a third time at the Vatican on June 6, 1987. Their last meeting together was in Miami on Sept. 10, 1987.
As is the case for most, if not all, meetings pontiffs have with world leaders, they were held in private and not recorded, so the specifics of their conversations are relatively unknown. That said, their mutual desire for peace and an end to communism was well documented.
The friendship between St. John Paul II and Reagan “is the most consequential of any between a sitting U.S. president and a pope,” Daniel Philpott, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, said in an email to The Tablet, newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York.
“It was a kinship between two souls who shared the same moral vision. Unlike people who surrounded them … each of them believed that communism in the Eastern Bloc could come to an end — not sustained through conflict resolution methods, not defeated through war, but rather transformed peacefully,” Philpott told The Tablet.
“Together, they dueled Eastern Bloc dictators through the power of human dignity, human rights, and the spirit of God but also remained open to negotiation and insisted on peaceful change,” he said. “These friends admired and respected each other greatly.”
After the exhibit closes Oct. 27, a bronze bust of St. John Paul, gifted by the Friends of John Paul II Foundation and sculpted by American sculptor Gordon Kray, will be put permanently on display at the Reagan Library.
Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer of the institute, said in an Aug. 27 statement that the exhibit highlights “the significant ways” in which the two leaders’ paths “converged to have a profound impact on modern history.”
“The diplomacy between President Reagan and St. John Paul II contributed to the downfall of communism and the freedom that the modern world enjoys today, and it’s important we remember and celebrate their lasting impact,” Giller added.
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