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Thursday, Apr. 24, 2025

Fact brief: Has a pope ever visited Fort Worth?

Jacob Sanchez, Fort Worth Report
no

No pope has visited Fort Worth.

A pope has visited the U.S. 10 times. Pope Paul VI was the first to visit the U.S. when he met President Lyndon B. Johnson on Oct. 4, 1965, in New York City.

St. John Paul II is the only pope to ever visit Texas. As part of a nine-city tour, John Paul stopped in San Antonio on Sept. 13, 1987.

Pope Francis, who died April 21, 2025, toured the U.S. in 2015. 

However, the closest he came to Texas was in 2016 when he visited Ciudad Juárez, Mexico — 600 miles west of Fort Worth. He held a Mass at a stadium near the U.S.-Mexico border. He turned toward the El Paso side of the border and blessed people gathered there to witness a papal Mass.

The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth has 1.2 million parishioners.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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