Father Alex Karloutsos Among 17 Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipients, Including Simone Biles, Gabby Giffords And Denzel Washington

The call came through on an average Thursday as Father Alex Karloutsos was playing chauffeur — shuttling his 15-year-old granddaughter, Xanthi Lazarakis, and her friends to a play date.

She, somehow, recognized the number on the caller ID — and was the first to shush the car as her grandfather answered.

“Father Alex?” the caller asked.

“Yes?” Karloutsos had replied, recalling the June 23 conversation on Tuesday morning.

“It’s Joe Biden.”

After exchanging pleasantries, the president cut to the chase — cordially inviting his longtime friend and his wife, Xanthi, to the White House on Thursday, July 7, where he will accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

“My granddaughter screamed a little bit — I was shocked,” Karloutsos said. “The kids in the back, they’re listening to a conversation between a common, simple priest and the president of the United States, so that was a thrill for them and a thrill for me.

“And I look at this as very humbling,” he continued. “I look at it as a blessing because I’m really not worthy of this.”

Karloutsos, who leads the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons in Shinnecock Hills, will be among the 17 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his 50-plus years as a priest, the former vicar general of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has provided counsel to several U.S. presidents — including Biden, one of his closest friends — and was named by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as a protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Other recipients include former U.S. Representative and gun violence survivor Gabrielle Giffords, gymnast Simone Biles, actor Denzel Washington, and fellow Long Islander Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse and vaccine advocate from Port Washington who was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials.

“These 17 Americans demonstrate the power of possibilities and embody the soul of the nation — hard work, perseverance and faith,” according to a statement from the White House. “They have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities — and across the world — while blazing trails for generations to come.”

The late U.S. Senator John McCain, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka are also among those to be honored posthumously at the ceremony in Washington, D.C.

“The blessing is being given to us by the president of the United States, who spoke about possibilities and that’s what America has given to all of us, who came as immigrants to this great land, and we can celebrate America — and that’s what freedom is about,” Karloutsos said. “And that’s why they have the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It frees all of us to become who we are.”

Karloutsos, who was born in Greece and has been long considered one of the most influential clergymen in the Greek Orthodox Church of America, has raised over $300 million, helped build a non-denominational chapel at Camp David, and has met three popes — Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis — who each gifted him a cross, an honor typically reserved for bishops.

He has also met every U.S. president in the Oval Office from Jimmy Carter onward: Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

The priest first crossed paths with Biden four decades ago, when he was a U.S. senator, and remains close with the entire family. In 2016, the then-sitting vice president visited the Shinnecock Hills church for a gala fundraiser for the foundation that netted $200,000.

“The president and I have a connection that’s really a spiritual connection,” Karloutsos previously told The Express News Group last May. “Religion for him, outside of politics, is his way of life. He is a deeply religious man, and I think that’s where we connect.”

The remaining honorees are Diane Nash, a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; Olympic gold medalist Megan Rapinoeis, who is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice and LGBTQI+ rights; and Brigadier General Wilma Vaughtis, one of the most decorated women in the history of the U.S. military.

U.S. Senator and advocate Alan Simpson also will be recognized, alongside Raúl Yzaguirre, a civil rights advocate who served as CEO and president of National Council of La Raza for 30 years; Sister Simone Campbell, who previously led the Catholic social justice organization NETWORK; Julieta García, the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president; attorney Fred Gray, who represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr.; and Khizr Khanis, founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center.

“America has given us the promise that we can achieve everything as long as you work hard for it, were humble about it, and these are the possibilities that happen to everyday people,” Karloutsos said. “And I’m gonna, simply in my mind and heart, accept this, just out of the fact that I serve this community, humbly, as best as I can, along with my wife of 52 years, and be forever grateful that I’m an American.”