Pope Paul VI made a short visit to New York City in September 1965. He spent three days in that city. Pope Paul VI conducted a service known as Vespers at St Patricks Catherdral on Thursday, addressed the United Nations on Friday, had a short meeting with Lyndon Johnson at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Saturday, then served mass at Yankee Stadium in front of a crowd of 50,000 people. The Catholic newspapers, published by each diocese in the United States, gave this trip blanket coverage. It was the first time a pope visited the United States, so it was not only front page news, it was an event that called for special commemorative editions of these newspapers. In New York City, it was also a major news story in the main stream media.
Outside of New York City, the secular media reported on this trip, but did not make a major news story out of it. The three nightly network news shows (CBS, NBC and ABC) broadcast short segments, showing the pope at the United Nations and at Yankee Stadium the next day. TIME magazine is an example of this light coverage. On September 17 1965, TIME ran a one column report on page 106, that was not even five hundred words long.
The United States did not recognize Vatican City as an independent nation in 1965. There were no formal diplomatic relations, so Lyndon Johnson did not invite Pope Paul VI to the White House for a state dinner or treat him as a visiting head of state. Still, LBJ did not want to anger Roman Catholics by snubbing the Pope completely, so he arranged a short, lunch meeting at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Lyndon Johnson also had other meetings in New York City, with other non-Catholics, so he was protected from the fanatical Separation of Church and State zealots that would foam at the mouth in rage, if they thought the President of the United States was making a special trip, just to meet with the Pope.
Source: http://time.com/4042433/paul-vi-lbj-1965/