Pope Francis’s complicated relationship with the United States

Americans greeted Pope St. John Paul II with open arms during his seven visits to the United States. Pundits often said he received a rockstar welcome, but perhaps only the Beatles in 1964 were met with greater adulation than the Polish pontiff.

Pope Francis received a more tepid response during his lone visit to America in 2015, perhaps because we had grown accustomed to papal visits. But perhaps it was the Argentine pope’s subtle, and sometimes overt, disdain for the U.S., its wealth, influence, and ever-increasing embrace of traditional Catholicism.