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Uno sguardo oltre l’Atlantico. Il cardinale Pietro Gasparri e gli Stati Uniti d’America
Abstract: The Holy See’s interest in the Catholic Church of the United States of America seems very important to show the range of tasks of the Secretary of State, Pietro Gasparri. In the first of the XX century, during the fifteen years in which Gasparri was Papal Secretary of State, four presidents ruled the USA while Catholicism was growing. However, the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Vatican and United States of America took place only after a long and difficult process. After a century of unilateral interruption of all the relations due to the will of the Congress, the first ambassador of the United States to the Holy See was named only in the 1980s, and he overcame the main obstacles posed by Protestantism such as diffused anti-Catholic prejudice and the supposed anti-constitutionality of a formal recognition of the Holy See, in accordance with article VI of the Constitution. Before that time, Gasparri dealt with many issues concerning the Catholic Church in the USA: the Americanism of the catholic hierarchy, the catholic behavior in the First World War and the relationship between President Wilson and the Catholics; the process of establishing and consolidating the National Catholic Welfare Conference; the White House election campaign for the catholic candidate Alfred Smith. However, all of these issues would show that the real authority of the American church was cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, and therefore both the Apostolic Delegate and the Secretary of State should have considered his opinion for each question.
