Medal of Freedom Photo: Abaca Press / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia
The White House announced that President Joe Biden has decorated Pope Francis with the Medal of Freedom – with Distinction, the only time a sitting president has awarded this decoration, reports Reuters.
The Medal of Freedom is America’s highest civilian decoration, but it has a special grade, “with distinction,” which Biden has awarded only to the bishop of Rome.
The announcement regarding the papal decoration was made after President Biden had a telephone conversation with the sovereign pontiff.
Joe Biden was scheduled to visit Rome this week, where he was supposed to meet face to face with Pope Francis, but had to cancel the visit due to the massive fires in California.
Biden is also the holder of the standard version of the Medal of Freedom, with which he was decorated in January 2017 by Barack Obama.
On January 4, at the White House, Joe Biden decorated many personalities, from the United States and abroad, among them the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the vocalist of U2 Bono and the actors Denzel Washington and Michael J. Fox.
