Faith & freedom take center stage at Becket’s 2026 Canterbury Medal Gala Annual religious liberty celebration featured a message from Pope Leo XIV & keynote by Paul Clement

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – As America prepares for its 250th birthday, Becket welcomed guests from across the country to Philadelphia last night for its 2026 Canterbury Medal Gala, the nation’s premier annual event celebrating religious liberty and recognizing those who defend it. During the evening, Becket presented the Canterbury Medal, religious liberty’s highest honor, to William P. “Bill” Mumma, Chairman of the Board of Becket, whose visionary leadership has helped shape Becket’s mission and strengthen the cause of religious liberty for all. The Honorable Paul D. Clement, 43rd Solicitor General of the United States, delivered the evening’s keynote address.

“Religious liberty has to be defended. The last 50 years have taught us not to take it for granted. We learned the high price of complacency. The Becket Fund was early to see the sinister risk our country faced, thanks to Seamus Hasson,” said William P. Mumma, Chairman of the Board of Becket and the 2026 Canterbury Medalist. “From its small beginning the Becket Fund, thanks to all of you, has grown into a powerful force. Our victories have been sweet, but now is not the time for a return to complacency. I urge all of you to redouble your commitment to this noble cause.”

The evening also featured a written message from His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to gala attendees, praising Becket’s work of protecting religious freedom as essential to safeguarding human dignity.

“By ensuring that all men and women are free to act in conformity with the dictates of their conscience and to practice their faith openly, without coercion or fear, you work to safeguard the inviolable dignity of the human person,” wrote Pope Leo XIV in a personalized letter to the attendees of the Canterbury Medal Gala. “Indeed, it is precisely in recognizing and defending this dignity that we can hope to establish a society that continues to promote the authentic development of every individual.”

In his message, Pope Leo noted that this work takes on particular significance as the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding. He pointed to the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence as an expression of the truth that every person is created by God, possesses inherent dignity, and has rights rooted in that dignity.

The Canterbury Medal draws its name from one of history’s most dramatic religious liberty stand-offs, which occurred between Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket, the law firm’s namesake, and King Henry II of England. The annual Canterbury Medal Gala honors the award recipient at a black-tie event attended by some of the world’s most distinguished religious leaders and religious liberty advocates. Past medalists include the late Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel; Cuban poet and former political prisoner Armando Valladares; Orthodox rabbi of the oldest Jewish congregation in the U.S., Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik; First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Dallin H. Oaks; and 62nd Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, Chaplain Barry C. Black.

“Religious freedom is at the heart of the American story,” said Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket. “For 250 years, it has enabled people of differing and conflicting beliefs to live together in peace. Becket exists to ensure that each new generation of Americans can write its own chapter of that story. We look forward to carrying our mission into America’s next 250 years.”