Pope Francis has sent the Presidential Medal of Freedom he was awarded by former President Joe Biden to Buenos Aires Cathedral.
Awarded to the Pope a few days before the end of Biden’s administration in January 2025, the medal was officially received at the cathedral in the Argentinian capital with a special Mass on 13 March and will now be exhibited in a museum.
Even though Biden’s reasons for honouring the Pope ostensibly had a humanitarian basis – he mentioned in a previous conversation with Francis his gratitude for the pontiff’s work to alleviate global suffering and in defence of human rights and of religious liberty – politics may have played a role for both of them in relation to the medal.
