Pope Leo XIV awarded Liberty Medal: 'God bless America'
Pope Leo XIV accepted the 38th Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for his lifelong promotion of religious liberty worldwide. He highlighted the 250th anniversary of the U.S. founding, urging a recommitment to the nation’s foundational ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Pope linked the First Amendment’s principles to the biblical concept of human dignity and inalienable rights. He praised America’s historical commitment to freedom and called for continued work toward justice and peace in the face of new challenges.
3 months ago
Pope Leo XIV was presented with the 2026 Liberty Medal by the U.S. National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, delivering a virtual address that linked America’s founding ideals to his lifelong advocacy for religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the need for each generation to renew the nation’s commitment to freedom. 1 2
The Vatican’s official news service reported that Pope Leo XIV received the 38th Liberty Medal on July 3, 2026, honoring his “lifelong work promoting religious liberty and freedom of conscience and expression around the world.” 1
A delegation from the National Constitution Center had previously visited the Vatican in April to present the award, and the Pope accepted it via a live virtual speech from Rome during a ceremony in Philadelphia. 2
Leo XIV highlighted the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom, describing it as essential for the inner sphere of conscience and for public worship without coercion. He noted that this freedom has fostered inter‑faith dialogue and cooperation in the United States. 1 2
The Pope emphasized that the right to life is the “first right” enshrined by the nation’s founders, arguing that a society cannot enjoy liberty or pursue happiness if life is not protected from conception to natural death. 1 2
He distinguished “authentic freedom” from mere liberty of action, linking it to the human person’s capacity to know truth and choose the good, rooted in the biblical vision of being created in God’s image. 2
Leo XIV urged Americans to “take up anew” the challenge of realizing the nation’s founding ideals—unity, justice, peace, and respect for human dignity—in each generation, especially as the United States marks its 250th anniversary. 1 2
The Pope recalled that America’s founders envisioned a “land of freedom” that welcomed immigrants and that the country’s tradition of liberty inspired its leadership during the World Wars. He framed the nation’s moral greatness as its capacity to protect the most vulnerable and to uphold the common good. 1 2
Concluding his remarks, Leo XIV prayed for God’s blessings on America and identified Christ—“the one whose very name is peace”—as the ultimate source of true freedom. 1
Religious liberty as rooted in First Amendment principles
Religious liberty, understood as the protection of conscience from coercion and the right of persons and religious communities to worship and live their faith, can be seen as compatible with core First Amendment principles. In Catholic teaching, however, the legal protection of religious liberty is not only a technique for managing pluralism; it is rooted in the dignity of the human person and therefore has a moral foundation that the state must recognize as a civil right.
Dignitatis Humanae teaches that religious freedom means that “all men are to be immune from coercion … and of any human power” so that “no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs.”
This is a key bridge to the First Amendment’s underlying aim: protection of religious belief and practice from government compulsion. Catholic teaching explicitly frames the right as an immunity from coercion—so the state’s task is not to “approve” belief, but to prevent forcing people to act against conscience.
Catholic teaching also insists the right has a foundation “in the very dignity of the human person,” known “through the revealed word of God and by reason itself.”
The Council further explains that humans are “beings endowed with reason and free will” who bear moral responsibility to “seek the truth… and adhere to the truth, once it is known.”
So, unlike a purely procedural or skeptical idea of freedom, the Catholic basis connects religious freedom to the real human obligation to truth—while still requiring that no one be coerced into religiously contrary acts.
Catholic teaching explicitly calls for recognition of religious freedom “in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right.”
This matters for any comparison with the First Amendment: it is not enough to say religious liberty is a private preference. The Catholic position is that a just society must protect religious liberty through public law.
The Council states that protecting religious freedom is an “essential duty of government,” which is to safeguard it “in an effective manner, by just laws.”
It also adds that government must ensure “equality of citizens before the law” and “Nor is there to be discrimination… for religious reasons.”
And it spells out an important concrete boundary: it is “a wrong” when government imposes, “by force or fear or other means,” the profession or repudiation of a religion—or hinders people from joining or leaving a religious community.
Those statements closely echo First Amendment-type protections in principle: government should not coerce religious belief or punish religious adherence, and it must treat citizens with legal equality.
Religious liberty is not only about personal belief. Catholic teaching emphasizes that “religious freedom” extends “when they act in community,” because religious communities are “a requirement of the social nature both of man and of religion itself.”
It then lists concrete rights for communities: freedom to govern themselves according to their norms, to honor God in public worship, to provide instruction, and to operate institutions.
This is relevant to modern debates often framed as “free exercise” for individuals: Catholic teaching expands the scope to the organizational and institutional life through which religion normally exists and can be practiced publicly.
Catholic teaching doesn’t treat religious freedom as unlimited. It states that coercion is excluded “within due limits.”
It also specifies that exercise of the right is “not to be impeded, provided that just public order be observed.”
So, in Catholic logic, a state may regulate for legitimate public order (e.g., protecting peace, preventing violence), but it may not suppress religious profession or worship by force or fear.
Catholic teaching also draws an internal moral boundary for religion itself: in spreading faith, people should refrain from actions that “might seem to carry a hint of coercion” or “persuasion” that is “dishonorable or unworthy.”
This is another point of harmony with liberal constitutional ideals: both are concerned with coercion, though Catholic teaching insists the moral form of persuasion matters too—not merely the legality.
Catholic teaching frames the right as rooted in the person’s nature and dignity, not in governmental permission. The right exists even for those who do not live up to their obligation to seek and adhere to truth, and its exercise “is not to be impeded” if public order is preserved.
This is consistent with a “non-establishment”-type instinct in First Amendment thought, insofar as the state should not treat religion as something it can arbitrarily allow, deny, or replace with state ideology—especially by coercion.
Pope Leo XIV reinforces that religious freedom is “not optional but essential,” rooted in dignity, and described as a “cornerstone of any just society” because it safeguards “the moral space in which conscience may be formed and exercised.”
He also characterizes denial of religious freedom as depriving people of the capacity “to respond freely to the call of truth.”
So, Catholic teaching agrees that law must protect religious freedom, but it interprets that protection as serving a deeper reality: the human person’s orientation to truth and moral responsibility, not merely the maintenance of social peace.
Religious liberty can be aligned with First Amendment principles—especially protection of conscience from coercion, legal recognition, and equality before the law—because Catholic doctrine explicitly defines religious freedom as immunity from coercion and requires government to safeguard it by just laws.
At the same time, Catholic teaching grounds the right in human dignity, recognizes religious communities as rights-bearing, sets boundaries in terms of just public order, and insists that freedom is ordered to truth and conscience rather than reduced to a mere political arrangement.