The Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, the pastor at Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons in Shinnecock Hills, is to be awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden Thursday at a White House ceremony honoring this year’s recipients. The longtime East End pastor was among 17 United States citizens to receive the annual high honor, which was announced on Friday.
According to a White House statement announcing the recipients, “the Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”
Father Karloutsos is the former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; he retired in March 2021. He was joined on the 2022 roster of Medal of Freedom recipients by the late senator John McCain, former senator Alan Simpson, former A.F.L.-C.I.O. president Richard Trumka and others from the civil rights, health care, entertainment, and sports communities.
His record of achievement highlights that he is a man of the church who has helped the state keep its balance with the almighty. He’s met three popes, counseled eight presidents in the Oval Office, and helped build the chapel at Camp David and the National Shrine at Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Father Karloutsous was chaplain for the New York-New Jersey Port Authority on that awful afternoon.
“I’ve known President Biden for 40 years,” Father Karloutsos said Tuesday in advance of the White House ceremony, “but he’s known a lot of people for 40 years. This is simply a blessing. It’s only because of amazing grace that I got this.”
Other 2022 honorees include the actor Denzel Washington, the Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles, and the L.G.B.T.Q.I.+ activist and Olympic soccer champion Megan Rapinoe. “I’m no Simone Biles,” Father Karloutsos said with a chuckle, adding that he’d been a pretty good high school athlete, but not a great one.
“I don’t think I have a standout achievement,” said Father Karloutsos by phone on Tuesday, when asked why he thought President Biden had selected him to be among a group that also includes former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, the late Steve Jobs, and the Gold Star father Khizr Khan.
“I didn’t think I did anything outstanding,” he said. “I served the church and the country for 52 years. I think the president wanted to show that a simple common priest trying to do God’s work could be honored — I thought, that’s impossible.”
In an era of shockingly regular outbursts of mass-death gun violence, a growing national divide, and a big war in Ukraine, Mr. Karloutsos said he hoped to use the moment to convey his belief “that what the president is about is possibilities. In scripture it says, ‘what is impossible with man is possible with God’ — and if we concentrate on our God-centeredness, no matter what the tradition, we know that God is love; love is creative and hate is destructive.”
Father Karloutsos was born in Greece and raised in the U.S. “I’m a ‘P.K.,’ a preacher’s kid,” he said, who was ordained in 1970. He is unabashed about his support for immigrants, and immigration: “America, when it embraced all the immigrants, it did it out of love” — and that “love force,” said Father Karloutsos, is how “the U.S. became the greatest nation in the world.”
The pastor moved to Southampton more than 30 years ago with his wife, Xanthi Karavellas, whom he described as “my conscience, my curb and my compass. She guided me.” He had left the archdiocese for a brief period in 1988 when his wife encouraged him to move to Southampton, where she relayed that “the church is too small,” he recalled — which prompted a $24 million project to build a new one. “I’m just a common man,” Father Karloutsous said, “ordained to help the church and the community.”
