I went to a Catholic school and I remember that, in one of the history lessons, the nun told us that, after the American Revolution, the pope wrote to Washington asking where the Catholic Church could establish a diocese. Washington wrote back telling the pope that we had no rules and he could do as he pleased. The nun said the pope was delighted.
Does anyone know if the above incident or anything even remotely resembling it ever happened? Or, was the nun badly mistaken?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there were dioceses in what is now the USA before the American Revolution (Baltimore for sure, probably another in the Louisiana Purchase, and perhaps others--I'll only research further at your request).
Washington was, however, not only tolerant but shockingly supportive of Catholics in his openly anti-Catholic (Protestant) era (e.g., he chastised his soldiers for mocking "pope day" parades and the burning of Catholic symbols, he actually attended a Catholic service celebrating the end of the Revolutionary War), so I can see such a pleasant cordiality having existed between the two.
Source: Faith in the Wilderness: The Story of the Catholic Indian Missions, plus general knowledge from my two Catholic theology degrees.