Pope Leo XIV will accept Liberty Medal in Philadelphia by remote broadcast

Leo’s planned remote acceptance of the Liberty Medal on Independence Mall in Philadelphia will keep him in Rome during the U.S. Independence Day period, the National Constitution Center said. The center announced that Pope Leo XIV will receive the award in a broadcast from Rome on July 3 rather than making a trip to the United States for the country’s 250th birthday celebrations.

The Liberty Medal, awarded by the National Constitution Center each year, is intended for people “of courage and conviction” who promote liberty around the world, according to the center. In the center’s announcement, it framed the honor as recognition of Leo’s “lifelong work promoting religious liberty and freedom of conscience and expression around the world — ideals enshrined by America’s founders in the First Amendment.”

The center said Leo will spend the Fourth of July on Lampedusa, a Sicilian island known as an arrival point for many migrants traveling to Europe from Africa. The Vatican has confirmed, the Associated Press reported, that Leo will not travel to the United States this year, even with an invitation from President Donald Trump.

The decision comes as Leo follows in the approach taken by his predecessor on the issue of migration, the AP said. It noted that Pope Francis made Lampedusa his first trip outside Rome after his 2013 election, when he celebrated Mass there on an altar made of shipwrecked migrant boats and denounced the “globalization of indifference.”

The AP also said Francis’ Lampedusa visit increased tensions with Trump’s first administration, a reference to how the Vatican’s public warnings about migration became part of a broader political clash. The AP further reported that Francis visited Philadelphia during a six-day trip across the United States in 2015.

According to the AP, Leo was born Robert F. Prevost, raised in Chicago, and attended Villanova University near Philadelphia, graduating in 1977. The Vatican has said Leo has a busy year of travel planned, including a grand tour of Italy and trips to four African nations.