First US-Born Pope Champions America’s Founding During Award By National Constitution Center

With the United States on the cusp of celebrating 250 years of independence, the first American pope was honored Friday by the National Constitution Center as its 2026 Liberty Medal recipient.

Awarded annually to “men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty for people around the globe,” the 38^th Liberty Medal honors Pope Leo XIV “for his lifelong work promoting religious liberty and freedom of conscience and expression around the world—ideals enshrined by America’s founders in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

The supreme pontiff had been given the actual medal during a private April 30 presentation ceremony at the Vatican by an interfaith group led by National Constitution Center Interim President and CEO Vince Stango. The Center, which opened July 4, 2003, is a private nonprofit which “serves as America’s leading platform for nonpartisan constitutional education and debate.”

“I would just like to recall the words signed by the founding fathers of the nation 250 years ago in Philadelphia, in the Declaration of Independence, when they said that, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident,’ that all men have received fundamental rights from our Creator,” the Holy Father said. “And they include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

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“May those values continue to inspire all of us, in the United States and throughout the world, and together, hopefully, we can all work that those freedoms will indeed be a part of the lives of all people everywhere,” he added.

Previous recipients of the medal include former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, in addition to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony Kennedy, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Arizona Senator John McCain, Alabama Rep. John Lewis, Olympic gold medalist and boxing legend Muhammad Ali, and imprisoned Catholic pro-democracy activist and media mogul Jimmy Lai.

The Friday ceremony, originally scheduled to take place in the shadow of Philadelphia’s historic Independence Hall where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed, was moved inside the National Constitution Center due to extreme heat. Other participants in the ceremony included Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia Nelson Pérez, and other interfaith leaders.

Addressing the attendees from the Vatican, Leo began his 10-minute acceptance speech identifying both as an American and with the ideas and principles from the Declaration of Independence that launched the fledgling nation on its course through history.