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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; IOC chairman Thomas Bach held a private audience with Pope Francis on Friday. (L'Osservatore Romano/AP)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pope Francis won't appear on an Olympic medal stand, but the leader of the Catholic Church will get gold medal-winner treatment Saturday. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will present the Pope the gold Olympic Order -- the highest IOC award -- Saturday at the Vatican, according to Olympic.org.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During a private audience on Friday, Bach and the Pope reportedly agreed on\u00A0the importance of sports in society and their contributions to building a more peaceful and better world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pope Francis, a native of Argentina, already did the IOC a solid by blessing the Olympic and Paralympic flags with holy water for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;\nNo word yet on who will be on hand to accept the silver medal for the Greek Orthodox Church.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2013/11/22/pope-francis-thomas-bach-ioc-olympic-order>