With the blessings of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the approval of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (AEP) announced that the 2025 Athenagoras Human Rights Award will be presented to the Hon. Michael R. Pompeo, the 70th Secretary of State of the United States of America. The Award will be presented on Saturday, October 18, 2025 at the AEP’s annual Athenagoras Human Rights Award black-tie banquet at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel in New York City.
Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis, National Commander of the AEP, stated: “Secretary Pompeo has consistently demonstrated a heartfelt and deeply informed concern for the rights of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and all of the religious minorities in Turkey, as well for the plight of all those around the world who have suffered for exercising their freedom of conscience. His 2020 visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate was a profound demonstration of his awareness of the central importance to the Orthodox Church and the world at large of the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople, and of the urgent necessity to protect and defend religious freedom. Throughout his lifetime of public service, Secretary Pompeo has been a staunch and steadfast defender of human rights, and is thus a richly deserving recipient of the Athenagoras Human Rights Award.”
On July 17, 2019, during Mr. Pompeo’s tenure as Secretary of State, the State Department presented a Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom; the AEP was invited to hold a sidebar, led by Archbishop Elpidophoros of America. In attendance were numerous members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), then-Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Then on Sept. 24, 2020, Secretary Pompeo also met with Archbishop Elpidophoros to discuss issues involving the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. And as Dr. Limberakis noted, on Nov. 17, 2020, during his tenure as Secretary of State, Secretary Pompeo visited the Phanar and met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Secretary Pompeo’s concern for religious freedom continued after his tenure in the State Department. On May 28, 2024 in Athens, Greece, he addressed the 4th Archon International Conference on Religious Freedom, which the AEP hosted at the direction of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in collaboration with the Brotherhood of Panagia Pammakaristos in Greece, the Order of the Holy Apostle Paul in Canada, as well as the Archons from Europe and Australia.
In his remarks, Secretary Pompeo praised Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, saying that this gave Ukrainians the ability to exercise their true faith. Pompeo criticized the Russian government for shamefully using the Church to justify war; he likewise noted that religion has been abused in Iran, and that the people of Iran deserve better than their regime.
Secretary Pompeo also stated that the conversion of the Chora Church in Constantinople into a mosque on May 6, 2024 was part of a longstanding effort by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to coerce people into abandoning their faith and their holy places. “There is no reason,” he declared, “that it should be desecrated.”
In addition to serving as Secretary of State of the United States from 2018 to 2021, Michael R. Pompeo was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from Jan. 2017 to April 2018, and was elected to four terms in Congress representing the Fourth District of Kansas. He graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. He currently Serves as Senior Counsel for Global Affairs at the American Center for Law & Justice and is the Chair of the Helms School of Government at Liberty University.
Established in 1986, the Athenagoras Human Rights Award is given in honor of Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, who served as Archbishop of the Americas for 18 years before being elected Ecumenical Patriarch in 1948. He was universally acknowledged as a visionary leader and worked for peace among Churches and people throughout his life.
Previous recipients include Russian dissident Yulia Navalnaya; the Prince’s Trust (now the King’s Trust), an international youth charity founded by King Charles III while he was Prince of Wales; Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa; Epiphaniy, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine; President Joseph Biden (when he was vice president); former President Jimmy Carter; former President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush; Nobel Laureate and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel; Mother Teresa of Calcutta; and the scientists who developed COVID vaccines and treatments. View a list of previous recipients.
The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is a devoted group of passionate leaders, relentlessly focused on protecting religious freedom for everyone and ensuring the future of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the historical spiritual center of the world’s 300+ million Orthodox Christians.
