Vatican City, October 2014. His Eminence Renato Raffaele Cardinal Martino, Grand Prior of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George has been honoured with the Maximilian Kolbe Medal for his “unwavering bravery” in defence of life.
Cardinal Martino said “I’m very honoured to receive this Maximilian Kolbe medal which recognises the work I did during 16 years as the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.”
Austin Ruse, President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute which monitors and defends life at the United Nations and other international institutions, presented the award in the cardinal’s Vatican residence on 16 October 2014. Also present was Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute board member, Robert Royal, and the founder of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, Benjamin Harnwell, who organised the presentation.
The Maximilian Kolbe medal is the highest honour awarded by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and has only previously been awarded once before, to the President of Costa Rica for his defence of life. The award was first announced in May, after which the medal was then crafted, showing an embossed scene of St. Maximilian in Auschwitz, the extermination camp where the Polish Franciscan gave his life in place of a fellow prisoner.
His Eminence played an instrumental role at two UN conferences in the 1990s in Cairo and Beijing, during which he led resistance to pressure to approve abortion as a method of family planning. The efforts resulted in the UN adopting Article 8.25 that banned abortion on such grounds.
Cardinal Martino served from 1986 to 2002 as Pope St. John Paul II’s representative to the United Nations in New York.
In 2003 he was appointed as a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals. Cardinal Martino was invested as a Bailiff Grand Cross of Justice for Cardinals of the Constantinian Order in 12 February 1996 by decree of HRH Prince Ferdinando, Duke of Castro.
In 2010, His Eminence Renato Raffaele, Cardinal Martino, SJ, was appointed by HRH The Duke of Castro as Grand Prior of the Constantinian Order.
Cardinal Martino served from 2002-2009 as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and as President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples from 2006 to 2009.
His Eminence served as the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations from 1986-2002. Previously His Eminence served from 1980-1986 as Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam.
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