In 1967, the inaugural session of World Communications Day took place at the Vatican, in Rome. Established by Pope Paul VI as an annual celebration that encourages people to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motions pictures, radio, television, and the Internet) afford the Church to communicate the gospel message, the initiative effectively ushered in the era of the celebrity-pontiff audience. The message today has broadened to include issues surrounding climate change, Third Word debt, global health care, education, and other social causes. But the image of a well-known personality being greeted by the Pope still serves as an especially powerful endorsement of that message.
Click through this gallery for a past and present look at pontiffs meeting personalities.