Washington D.C., Dec 9, 2009 / 20:01 pm
William A. Wilson, the first ambassador of the United States to the Holy See, was a “pivotal figure” in American-Vatican relations, Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl A. Anderson said following Wilson’s passing.
Ambassador Wilson, a convert to Catholicism, died in California on Saturday at the age of 95.
President Ronald Reagan named Wilson his personal envoy to the Vatican in 1981, a Knights of Columbus press release said. In 1983, when Congress repealed an 1867 law banning the use of federal funds for a Vatican mission, Reagan established full diplomatic relations with the Holy See and named Wilson as the first U.S. Ambassador there.
“The establishment of diplomatic relations following repeal of a blatantly anti-Catholic law enacted shortly after the Civil War was a measure of how much had changed for Catholics in America during the intervening 115 years,” Anderson commented.