House Speaker John Boehner has invited Pope Francis to speak to both houses of Congress.
Odd, isn't it? A Protestant government inviting an unelected, absolute dictator for life whom the founders of various Protestant churches all said was the antichrist of Bible prophecy.
By 1870 the US Congress had pulled funding from the diplomatic mission in Rome, causing it to close and ending US diplomatic ties to the papacy, the only church the US has ever sent an ambassador to, as far as I know. Given how strict we tend to me about the separation of church and state, it is strange that we would send an ambassador to the Vatican under Reagan.
Why did the US Congress pull funding back then? Because it had heard that the papacy was not allowing Protestant services to be held in Rome, something to that effect. Are things different today? Does the Vatican permit Protestant services within its walls?