Relationship dossier
Vatican City
United States
Relationship assessment
Sustained diplomatic engagement, cooperation on shared concerns, and policy disagreements
Vatican City toward United States
+40Through the Holy See, Vatican City has maintained diplomatic engagement with the United States and pursued dialogue on humanitarian concerns, peace, and religious freedom. Pope Francis's 2015 visit to the United States included an address to Congress and high-level meetings.
United States toward Vatican City
+40The United States has maintained diplomatic engagement with the Holy See and hosted Pope Francis for an official visit in 2015. U.S. leaders have also held high-level discussions with the Pope, including President Barack Obama's 2014 meeting at the Vatican.
Overall relationship
+40A durable diplomatic relationship and recurring high-level engagement support cooperation on humanitarian and international concerns. Disagreements over abortion and reproductive policy remain a feature of the relationship, but have coexisted with continued dialogue and official visits.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Vatican City's external relations are conducted through the Holy See, which maintains sustained diplomatic engagement with the United States. The governments have cooperated through high-level visits and dialogue on humanitarian concerns, peace, and religious freedom. Their positions have also differed on issues including abortion and reproductive policy, but these disagreements have not displaced the broader relationship.
Areas of tension
- Differences over abortion and reproductive policy, including the framing of reproductive health in international policy.
Key developments
The United States established full diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
President Barack Obama met Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Pope Francis made an official visit to the United States, including an address to Congress.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and practical results of bilateral cooperation across policy areas are unclear.
- The degree to which disagreements over reproductive policy affect current government engagement is uncertain.