Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden awarded Pope Francis the nation's highest civilian honor on Saturday, saying the Pope is 'a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world' and mentioning Francis' relationships with 'different faiths.'
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden awarded Pope Francis the nation’s highest civilian honor on Saturday, saying the Pope is “a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.”
In a statement issued from the White House on Saturday, Biden’s awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Pope Francis was made public. The statement read:
Today, President Biden spoke with His Holiness Pope Francis and named him as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors. This is the first time that President Biden has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.
Biden’s laudatory message summarizing the aspects of Francis’ life that had been taken into account for the award cited the Pope’s activism “serving the poor” and his calls for peace and climate change action.
The president also mentioned Francis’ relationships with “different faiths” and styled him “the People’s Pope”:
As a young man, Jorge Bergoglio sought a career in science before faith led him to a life with the Jesuits. For decades, he served the voiceless and vulnerable across Argentina. As Pope Francis, his mission of serving the poor has never ceased. 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 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.
A few days earlier, Biden had awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a number of people, including George Soros and Hillary Clinton.
“These 19 individuals are great leaders who have made America and the world a better place,” a White House statement read. “They are great leaders because they are good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world.”
Such a decision was, however, widely criticized, with commentators slating Biden’s choice of recipients for the award.
Linking Francis’ reception of the award to Clinton and Soros, former U.S. Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò drew a comparison between the three:
Along with these exponents of the Radical Left, Joe Biden supports the antichristic and criminal Agenda 2030 plan, adherence to woke and LGBTQ+ ideology, gender theory, climate change hysteria, mass vaccinations, abortion and infanticide, and ethnic replacement through uncontrolled immigration.
How can one be surprised if among this very select group of medalists is also Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whom the deep state arranged to be elected as head of the deep church precisely to promote the same criminal globalist coup?
Current U.S. Nuncio and Viganò’s successor Cardinal Christophe Pierre was in attendance at the White House for a photo shoot with Biden to present the award to the Pope from afar.
Biden had been due to visit Rome and the Vatican City State at the end of last week but announced January 8 that he had canceled his visit. The brief statement cited the recent devastating fires in California as the reason for Biden remaining in the U.S.
The trip was due to be the swan song of Biden’s presidency, as the politician looked to cite his identity of a “Catholic president” one last time and crown his career with a final Papal audience.
Biden last met with Francis briefly in June during Italy’s hosting of the G7 meeting. But it was an October 2021 private audience between the pair that drew the most attention.
READ: Pro-abortion Joe Biden says Pope Francis told him to ‘keep receiving Communion’
Emerging from the meeting, Biden asserted that the Pontiff “was happy I’m a good Catholic” and told him to “keep receiving Communion.” Summary press releases from both the White House and the Holy See Press Office briefly noted that the conversation revealed around the “world’s poor,” as well as the “climate crisis” and issues regarding COVID-19 and refugees.
However, despite Biden’s prolific political record advocating for abortion and LGBT issues, the topic of abortion apparently was not raised in the meeting. Some observers suggested that if Biden had been told to “keep” receiving Communion, then the topic of abortion must have been discussed.
READ: Pope Francis: Biden’s support for abortion a matter for his ‘conscience’ and ‘pastor’
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is always wrong because it kills an innocent human being, thus violating the Church’s prohibition on murder, a teaching that “remains unchangeable.”
“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states. “The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
Furthermore, the Church’s canon law stipulates that under no circumstances are those who persist in manifest grave sin to receive the Holy Eucharist. “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
