Right to Life (NZ) Inc is delighted to announce that the Papal Medal has been presented to Mr Ken Orr, by Bishop Barry Jones, DD, at St Mary’s Catholic church, Christchurch , on Saturday 13 November.
The award is titled “Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice” (for Church and Pope) and it was presented to Ken for his many years of service to the pro-life movement and for his services to the Catholic church.
This is the highest honour which the Catholic church can bestow upon a lay person (that is a person who is not a clergyman).
Kenneth Alfred Orr has been involved in the struggle to uphold and defend life from conception from the early 1970s until the present day. As well as being a long time committee member of Right to Life since its founding in 1999, he was formerly a National Executive member in the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child.
He has been persistent and courageous in the face of unremitting hostility from those who seek to deny the pro-life message. He has not given up the battle despite many personal attacks upon himself, involving vilification and hostility.
In addition to maintaining the Society newsletter, acting as spokesman for Right to Life and political lobbying, Ken has been instrumental in bringing the court case against the Abortion Supervisory Committee, in order to try to uphold the current law and gain some legal protection for the unborn children in New Zealand.
Ken has also served as a reader and minister of the Eucharist in his parish, and has been involved in assisting a single mother materially. He is a member of the Carmelite third order and is a man of prayer and hospitality. He is also a family man, married to Aleida for over thirty years, and the father of four and grandfather to two children. One of his sons is a priest in the Christchurch diocese.
Our society congratulates Ken Orr for this honour bestowed upon him, and wishes him many graces and blessings from this recognition for his work for the most marginalized and defenceless of people – unborn children.
In accepting his award, Ken stated that he regarded the medal as recognition not only for himself, but for all of the people in the pro-life movement who work to save the unborn children.
Philip Creed
President Right to Life New Zealand
I am truley delighted to hear this news. Ken is a living embodyment of the gospel and dedicted to the culture of light and life. I am especially grateful for his unrelenting support in our work to oppose the selective abortion of children with Down syndrome.
Blessed are those who hunger and first for righteousness.
Blessed are those who are presucuted because of righteousness.
Top man, that Ken Orr. A most fitting recongnition.
Congratulations Ken. Well done!
Congrats Ken, you scum bag.
Hello Jonathon,
From time to time we post comments such as yours. We do so to illustrate the basic nature of those who have no other means of expressing their opinion other than ad hominem attacks of puerile nature.
Right to Life
Am I correct in believing you generally only approve comments which support your very strong views on the highly debated issue of abortion?
Is this not a little or ALOT bias? Such an important issue should include all points of view, not just that of our own. In posting only comments that support your personal opinions you are creating a propaganda like page, which as I see it will only hinder your goal.
Your God made us all equal..and yet here in this forum, you are deciding who shall have their voice heard and who should not. Personally I think behaviour such as this only further turns society against respecting your religion.
I would like to see ALL comments (apart from those with offensive language, obviously) included, making this an un bias discussion on a very important issue
Dear Ashlee,
That is quite incorrect. We have replied to your earlier comment and have made a considered response.
Right to Life admin
Get a grip, Ashlee. Right To Life’s website is not a forum for the exchange of views on abortion.
As the global warmers say, the science is settled. Abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent person – murder.
Right To Life’s purpose is just to stop that happening.