The papal decoration “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice” (For Church and Pontiff), has been conferred on Atlanta attorney Richard J. Azar, Jr. by Pope Paul VI.

The announcement was made recently in Boston by Melkite Catholic Archbishop Joseph Tawil, spiritual leader of Melkite Catholics in the United States.

In 1958, Mr. Azar was one of the founders of the Melkite Laymen’s association of North America and served as its national president from 1958 to 1964, during which period Melkite Catholic communities were striving toward the establishment of the Melkite hierarchy in America.

In 1966, Pope Paul erected a temporary diocese for Melkites in the United States and, on May 8, 1977, a permanent diocese was established with the naming of Archbishop Joseph Tawil of Boston as bishop.

Mr. Azar also received the Melkite Catholic Church’s highest honor in 1960, when the late Maximos IV Cardinal Sayegh, then patriarch of the Melkite Catholic Church, named him a Knight of the Golden Cross of Jerusalem. He currently serves on the Diocesan Pastoral Council of the Melkite Catholic Church in America.

Mr. Azar, son of the late Mr. And Mrs. Richard G. Azar, is a member of St. John’s Melkite Catholic Church in Atlanta and is a practicing attorney in Atlanta.