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A Pope and A President
Odd Couple in Search of Peace and Freedom
President Biden awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction during a phone call on Saturday, January 11, and importantly, it is the only Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction that Biden has awarded.
I can understand why Biden awarded the medal to the Pontiff. Biden is a Catholic. The Pope is the head of the largest branch of Christianity with a global following of around 1.4 billion baptized and with over 70 million Catholics in the United States. Gratitude and praise from the Pontiff in accepting such an award is sure to enhance the President’s stature and legacy. But should the Pope have accepted the medal? No.
The Pope could have asked himself whether and how he had promoted freedom and peace during Biden’s presidency? Had he moved the needle in Ukraine, Sudan or Palestine? And most poignant, had the Pope persuaded the American President, Israel’s essential backer and enabler with arms, money, intelligence, vetoes at the United Nation’s Security Council, bullying at the international courts (ICC and ICJ) and global political support to put an end to the Israeli carnage in Palestine and demand a ceasefire? NO.
If the Pope had implored Biden to stop the carnage in Palestine, especially the massacre of children that is so important to the Pontiff, then his pleading failed. And if he did not so implore, then he is not the man of peace that we all assume he is.
So this medal is presented to the Pope for reasons unknown. Friendship? Presidential legacy? Papal legacy?
The Pope would have done more for peace if he had turned down the award and trumpeted his reasons — America’s connection to conflicts and wars around the world and especially to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. A Pope for peace and freedom should have distanced himself from a President who is directly connected to the ongoing genocide.