He's usually speaking at White House press briefings or in TV appearances to urge people to take safety measures like wearing face masks when appropriate and to get the COVID-19 vaccination and booster shot to protect themselves and others against the spread of the virus.

On Sept. 18, Fauci appeared in a different setting, the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel at Georgetown Preparatory School in the Washington suburb of North Bethesda, alongside Christine Grady, his wife and a National Institutes of Health colleague.

Both received the Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Award for Exemplary Public Service from the Ignatian Volunteer Corps of the National Capital Area during the organization's "Evening of Gratitude" event, which opened with a prayer service.

The Ignatian organization provides opportunities to men and women who are 50 and older to serve the poor and work for justice, and to deepen their Christian faith through prayer and reflection in the Ignatian spiritual tradition established by St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, the Society of Jesus.

The new Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Award was named for the superior general of the Jesuits (1965 to 1983), who coined the phrase "men and women for others."

After receiving the award, Fauci said it was especially meaningful for him to receive an honor named for a Jesuit superior general.

He noted that from an early age, his parents told him and his sister "that one of the most important things you could do is to provide service to others, and fortunately for me, that was really underscored and imprinted upon me very strongly, because I had the privilege of having eight years of Jesuit training – four years at Regis High School in New York City, and four years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts."
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Fauci has been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health since 1984 and now also serves as the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

One can say I have the spirit of the Jesuit tradition exemplified by Father Pedro Arrupe – I have those Jesuitical fingerprints all over my professional and my personal life, which is service for others," he said.

He added, "I have to say quite sincerely, that has been the strength that has really allowed me and driven me to do some of the things I've done."

Fauci, who is 81, recently announced that he would be stepping down from his government work in December.

"As you've heard, I've been at the NIH for 54 years," he said. "I walked onto the campus just a little bit south of here as a 27-year-old physician who just finished his training in internal medicine to start off as a fellow in infectious diseases.