The current United States Ambassador to the Holy See is Joe Donnelly, who replaced the ad interim Chargé d'Affaires, Patrick Connell, on April 11, 2021.

These relations lapsed when on February 28, 1867, Congress passed legislation that prohibited any future funding of United States diplomatic missions to the Holy See.

This decision was based on mounting anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States,[1] fueled by the conviction and hanging of Mary Surratt, and three other Catholics, for taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

There was also a false allegation that the Pope had forbidden the celebration of Protestant religious services, which had been held weekly in the home of the American Minister in Rome, within the walls of the city.

[2][3] In his June 1908 apostolic constitution, Sapienti Consilio, Pope Pius X decreed that as of November 3 that year, the Catholic Church in the United States would no longer be supervised by the Vatican's missionary agency, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide), and would now be a mission-sending Church, not “mission territory.”[citation needed] Several presidents designated personal envoys to visit the Holy See periodically for discussions of international humanitarian and political issues.

In 1933, Farley set sail for Europe, along with Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov, on the Italian liner SS Conte di Savoia.

[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] On October 20, 1951, President Truman nominated former General Mark W. Clark to be the United States emissary to the Holy See.

[21] The Vatican has historically been accused of being un-American, at least until the presidency of John F. Kennedy (see Americanism (heresy), nativism and anti-Catholicism in the United States).

Relations between President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II were close especially because of their shared anti-communism and keen interest in forcing the Soviets out of Poland.