On November 22nd, 1963, U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated as he was riding with his wife, Jackie, alongside him, in an open top motorcade along Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.

According to the Warren Commission's Report, JFK had been shot and killed by lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. The majority of people around the world found the final conclusions of the Warren Commission's Report completely incredulous and quite frankly, totally unbelievable. In fact, the report was soon dubbed "the greatest work of fiction ever published", and to this day there has never been a definitive explanation of what happened on Dealey Plaza that day that has managed to satisfy everyone.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first, last, and only Roman Catholic ever to hold the office of President of the United States, and most people looking on would have thought that a Roman Catholic President in the White House would be wonderful news for the Church of Rome. But in the Vatican, the current incumbent Pope John XXIII was not at all pleased by the news, and he saw JFK, with his numerous illicit affairs and sexual dalliances, as a massive threat to the good name, teachings, reputation, and above all, the moral guidance of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church.

Pope John XXIII made his decision.