On Saturday, May 12, 2012, His All-Holiness received Four Freedom Award from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Foundation in Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg (Netherlands). The Freedoms Medals are presented to men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which President Roosevelt proclaimed in his historic speech to Congress on January 6, 1941, as essential to democracy: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew received the Freedom Medal for his extraordinary efforts on behalf of religious freedom, his continued dedication to the dialogue of reconciliation among Christians, Muslims and Jews, and his committed advocacy for the preservation of the natural environment.