"The meeting with Pope Paul VI began with great dignity and formality.

First, he and Johnson shook hands and then Johnson introduced those of us who had accompanied him. Jack Valenti, the President's secretary, Marie Fehmer, and I, and other [Roman] Catholic staff members filed by, knelt, and kissed the Pope's ring."

From ........ GOVERNING AMERICA- An Insider's Report

from the White House and the Cabinet

By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

pages 221-222 .................... CIVIL RIGHTS

[-------------]

I remember the day Gardner notified the city of Chicago. President Johnson was in New York to welcome Pope Paul VI to the United States and the United Nations, and he had taken Catholics on the White House staff with him.

The evening before the Pope's arrival, U.N. Ambassador Arthur Goldberg hosted a party for the President and Francis Cardinal Spellman, the powerful [Roman] Catholic archbishop of New York. We had thought and debated about the protocol and politics of how Johnson should handle the Pontiff's visit.

The President himself had spent hours discussing the setting for the unprecedented meeting. The chancery behind St. Patrick's Cathedral on Madison Avenue? No, an American President should not go to Catholic territory, especially when the constitutionality of some of the Great Society elementary and secondary education programs was being challenged as violating the First Amendment separation of church and state.

The United Nations? No, this was an American President welcoming the Pope to the United States, and too many East European, Irish, and Italian Catholics did not like the United Nations.

We finally settled for the neutral ground of the Waldorf-Astoria. There, on October 4, 1965, Lyndon Johnson became the first American President to sit down in the United States with a Roman Catholic Pope.

Earlier that day, Johnson had heard that HEW Secretary Gardner had announced his intention to cut off federal funds to Chicago's school system. Mayor Richard Daley, also in New Yolk to meet the Pope, had already called Johnson to express his angry astonishment. Johnson was extremely agitated and instructed me to have Gardner and Attorney General Katzenbach in his Oval Office on our return to Washington late that afternoon. We were going to the suite to meet the Pope, and Johnson was still talking about Chicago as we got off the elevator.

The meeting with Pope Paul VI began with great dignity and formality.

First, he and Johnson shook hands and then Johnson introduced those of us who had accompanied him. Jack Valenti, the President's secretary, Marie Fehmer, and I, and other Catholic staff members filed by, knelt, and kissed the Pope's ring. Then the room cleared, with only a few of us remaining. Johnson and the Pope sat side by side. The Pope told the President how much he respected his extraordinary work in educating children, particularly poor children. The President beamed as the Pope elaborated.

Then Johnson's face flushed slightly; he turned to the Pope, his enormous hands reaching out, one stopping just short of landing on the Pontiff's knee.

"That's the work I want to do, your Holiness, educate poor children. But they're trying to stop me. One of my own Cabinet members wants to stop funds for poor children in one of our largest cities, run by a fine Catholic mayor. But we'll help these children."

It was vintage Johnson. The Pope was politely puzzled during the translation. I could hardly keep from laughing; I'm sure I smiled.

When we got back to the White House, Johnson made it clear to Gardner that he would not cut off funds to Chicago without giving Daley every chance to present his case and, if necessary, desegregate the schools voluntarily.

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-END QUOTE-

GOVERNING AMERICA- An Insider's Report

from the White House and the Cabinet

By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

Pub.by Simon and Schuster 1981

ISBN 0-671-25428-6