Days before leaving the White House, President Biden awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history, spoke by phone with the Pope on Saturday to inform him that he had received the Order of Merit, the nation's highest civilian honor.
The White House is photograph Mr. Biden is in the Oval Office next to his medal. Biden was scheduled to visit Rome this weekend, but canceled his trip due to wildfires raging in Los Angeles.
The Pope is the only person to whom Biden specifically awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his tenure. He was previously scheduled to depart for Italy on Thursday, his final trip as president, to meet with the Pope and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The White House praised the Pope, calling the leader of the Catholic Church “the people's Pope, a beacon of faith, hope and love that shines brightly throughout the world.”
The president has close ties to the pope, who has supported the president despite church teachings against abortion. The two met in June during Biden's visit to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) meeting.
The pontiff also met with the pope in October 2021, as conservative Catholic bishops weighed whether he could receive Holy Communion because of his pro-abortion stance. Biden said at the time that he was told by the Pope that he should continue to receive Holy Communion.
A month later, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a document on the reception of the Holy Communion without mentioning whether Biden or other politicians should be denied the rite because of their stance on abortion, and ended debate on the issue. suggested the end of
Biden also recalled that in 2015, when he was vice president, the pope visited Washington, D.C., to talk about the death of his son Beau.
