WASHINGTON (OSV News) — President Joe Biden awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, the nation’s highest civilian honor, the White House said January 11.

Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, spoke with the pontiff to name him a recipient of the award, the White House said. It marked the only time in his presidency Biden bestowed that award “with distinction,” the announcement added.

On January 8 Biden canceled a trip to Italy that had been scheduled for January 9-12. It would have included an audience with Pope Francis and would have been his final foreign trip as president. The cancellation came in the wake of the devastating wildfires raging in California.

Pope Francis’ mission of serving the poor “has never ceased,” the White House said in its statement about the award.

“A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet. A welcoming leader, he reaches out to different faiths,” the statement said. “The first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, Pope Francis is unlike any who came before. Above all, he is the People’s Pope — a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction has rarely been bestowed in recent decades. But Biden himself is one such recipient. Then-President Barack Obama awarded Biden, who was then vice president, with such a medal in 2017. Another pontiff has also received the award. Then-President George W. Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction to St. John Paul II in 2004.

Biden last met with Pope Francis at the Group of Seven summit in Puglia, Italy, June 14, where they had a brief private bilateral meeting, according to Catholic News Service. The pair also spoke by telephone in December, the White House said, and shortly after that call, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. Pope Francis and other Catholic opponents of the death penalty had sought such action.

On October 29, 2021, Biden, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, met with the pope at the Vatican. Biden spent 75 minutes talking to the pope privately and later told reporters that the pope had indicated that he was a “good Catholic.”

In a January 11 post on X announcing the award, Biden is shown in a photo in the Oval Office accompanied by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S.

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Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X.