Biden, the nation's second Catholic president, spoke with the pontiff to name him a recipient of the award, the White House said.

Catholic Charities USA is now accepting donations to its Los Angeles Wildfire Relief initiative, and the L.A. archdiocese has created a dedicated relief fund.

President Biden has canceled his upcoming trip to Italy, including an audience with Pope Francis, to “remain focused on directing the full federal response” in the wake of the devastating wildfires raging in California.

“Today we know how to turn our eyes toward Mars or virtual worlds, but we struggle to look into the eyes of a child who has been left on the margins and is being exploited and abused,” the pope said at his general audience Jan. 8.

“This is a very significant beginning,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the chief Vatican organizer of the Jubilee Year, said in a statement.

Pope Francis today named Cardinal Robert McElroy as the archbishop of Washington, tapping one of his most like-minded allies to head the Catholic Church in the U.S. capital at the start of Donald Trump’s second administration.