United States Ambassador to the Holy See

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The following is the list of United States Ambassadors to the Holy See, past and present. The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See serves as the country's official representative to Vatican City since formal diplomatic relations began in 1984^[1]. In 1951, President Truman's pick of a WWII hero Mark W. Clark was defeated. Between 1951 and 1968, the United States had no official representative in the Vatican. President Nixon changed this when he appointed Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. as his personal representative to the Holy See. President Jimmy Carter followed with the appointment of former New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner. [1]

Name	Years served	Pope	U.S. President
William Wilson[2]	1981 - 1986	John Paul II	Ronald Reagan
Frank Shakespeare	1986 - 1989		Ronald Reagan
Thomas Patrick Melady	1989 - 1993		George H. W. Bush
Raymond Flynn	1993 - 1997		Bill Clinton
Corinne Claiborne Boggs	1997 - 2001		Bill Clinton
James Nicholson	2001 - 2005		George W. Bush
Francis Rooney	2005 - present	Benedict XVI	George W. Bush

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ Mission Statement from the website of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See
2. ^ From 1981 to 1984, Wilson was Reagan's Personal representative to the Holy See.