Other former recipients include former French president of François Mitterrand; former German Chancellor Helmut Khol in 1988; former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2000; and the current German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2008.
Events surrounding the conferral of the prize begin May 5 with a discussion on the State of the European Union in the Vatican's Capitoline Museums.
The meeting is being organized by the Charlemagne Foundation and by the European University Institute of Florence in collaboration with the European Parliament.
Present for the discussion will be the three European institutional leaders – Schulz, Juncker and Tusk – as well as Italy's Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, who will give the welcoming address.
The three leaders will have a private meeting with Pope Francis before his reception of the prize. Merkel will also meet with the Pope for a private audience before the conferral ceremony.
Francis' conferral ceremony will be opened by Marcel Philipp, mayor of Aachen, while Juergen Linden of the Charlemagne Foundation will read the aloud the reasons why the Pope has been selected for the award.
In his own speech, Pope Francis will likely touch on widespread topics related to his addresses before European Parliament and the European Council during his visit to Strasbourg Nov. 25, 2014, such as immigration and care for the poor.
In his two dense, lengthy speeches that day Pope Francis indicated what was for him a path toward unity for the European Community that was focused on attention to the weak and marginalized, the poor and children who are at risk of being aborted.
When he spoke to European Parliament, in particular, Francis stressed that "the time has come for us to abandon the idea of a Europe which is fearful and self-absorbed."
The moment has arrived, he said, "to work together in building a Europe which revolves not around the economy, but around the sacredness of the human person, around inalienable values."
Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.