President Joe Biden awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Pope Francis, a personal marker of his Roman Catholic faith after devastating fires in California prompted the president to cancel a Vatican visit during his final days in office.

The White House said Biden spoke with the pontiff on Saturday and named him a medal recipient with distinction, an exceptional category of the U.S.’s highest civilian honor that’s rarely awarded.

As vice president, Biden himself was awarded the medal with distinction by President Barack Obama at a surprise ceremony in January 2017 that left Biden teary-eyed. Obama called Biden, who went on to win the White House in 2020, “an extraordinary man.”

Biden formed a connection with Francis dating to his time as vice president. He has called him a man of “great empathy” and had planned to travel to Rome and the Vatican this week for talks with Italian political leaders and an audience with the pontiff.

The two men bonded during a meeting in 2015 soon after the death of Biden’s oldest son, Beau. They met twice during Biden’s presidency, once at the Vatican in 2021 and again last June at a Group of Seven summit in Italy.

Biden’s award citation on Saturday praised Francis, 88, for serving “the voiceless and vulnerable” in his native Argentina for decades before assuming the papacy. As pope “his mission of serving the poor has never ceased” and “he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet.”

_____

©2025 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.