Francis Xavier Ford | |
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Bishop Emeritus of Kaying (Meizhou) | |
![]() Bishop Ford in 1951 | |
Installed | April 11, 1946 |
Term ended | February 21, 1952 |
Other post(s) | Vicar Apostolic of Kaying (1935–1946) |
Orders | |
Ordination | December 5, 1917 |
Consecration | September 21, 1935 by Bishop James Anthony Walsh, MM |
Personal details | |
Born | January 11, 1892 |
Died | February 21, 1952 60) A prison in Guangzhou, China | (aged
Buried | location unknown |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Maryknoll Seminary |
Styles of Francis X. Ford | |
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Reference style | The Right Reverend |
Spoken style | Your Excellency |
Religious style | His Excellency |
Posthumous style | Servant of God |
Francis Xavier Ford, MM (January 11, 1892 - February 21, 1952) was an American bishop of the Catholic Church and a Maryknoll missionary in China. Because of his torture by the Communist Chinese and death in prison in 1952, he is considered a martyr, and the cause for his canonization has begun, granting him the religious title of Servant of God.
Ford was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Austin Brendan Ford and Elizabeth Rellihan Ford. He attended Cathedral College in Manhattan. While studying there, he felt a call to respond to the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America's vision, just founded in 1911 by the Catholic bishops of the United States for overseas service. Upon completion of his high school studies, he was accepted by the Society.
When Ford reported to the Maryknoll seminary in Ossining, New York, on 14 September 1912, he became the first student of the fledgling Maryknoll Society. [1] He was the first person to matriculate in this institution. [2] He was ordained on December 5, 1917, and became one of the first four American Catholic priests to arrive in China in 1918. [3]
In 1918 Ford began to serve in the Province of Canton (Guangdong), in southern China, and in 1921 opened the first Maryknoll mission in China. He was named Prefect Apostolic of a new mission in Kaying (Meizhou) in northern Guangdong in 1925. The Prefecture was raised to the status of a Vicariate Apostolic in 1935, with Ford named as Vicar Apostolic, for which he was appointed the titular bishop of Etenna. [4] He was consecrated a bishop by James Anthony Walsh, the Superior General of the Maryknoll Society, on September 21, 1935. [5]
During twenty years of serving in Kaying, Ford increased his flock from 9,000 to 20,000 and built schools, hostels, and churches. He was chairman of the Chinese Catholic Welfare Conference for Southern China and played an important role in establishing the first overseas convent for the Maryknoll Sisters. When World War II started, Kaying was surrounded by Japanese troops. [6] Nevertheless, Ford remained at his post, aiding Chinese guerrillas, helping downed Allied airmen escape, [7] relieving war refugees in distress. [2] Shortly after the war ended, in April 1946, the vicariate was raised by the Holy See to the status of a full diocese, with Ford appointed as its first bishop.
The victory of the forces of the Chinese Communist Party over the Nationalist forces of General Chiang Kai-shek in October 1949 marked a significant shift in the fate of the Catholic missions. In December 1950, the Communists placed Ford and his secretary, Joan Marie Ryan, under house arrest and charged them with espionage. Though never tried, Ford was taken from his home four months later and publicly paraded, beaten, and degraded in some of the cities he had done mission work in since 1918. His treatment at the hands of the Communists is attested to by Ryan. [2]
In one town, a Communist-orchestrated mob beating was so intense that even Ford's Communist guards fled. Though knocked to the ground repeatedly, Ford continued to walk calmly through the crowd until his guards returned. His neck was bound with a wet rope in another town, which almost choked him as it dried and shrank. Another rope was made to trail from under his gown like a tail. To humiliate them both, the Communists forced Ford to undress before Ryan. The last time she saw Ford alive was in February 1952, just before he died. She reported that his hair had turned completely white, and he was so emaciated that she saw a fellow prisoner carrying him "like a sack of potatoes." [2]
Ford died in prison in Guangzhou on February 21, 1952. [2] [6] He was the first American Roman Catholic bishop and fourth American civilian known to have died in the prisons of the Chinese Communists. [2]
Ford's diocese would have been the first Maryknoll territory to be turned over to the native clergy had the Communists not suppressed the local Catholic community. Ford was Maryknoll's first martyr, and the first to be killed at the hands of Chinese Communists. [2] Ford's remains were never found, having been intentionally scattered by the Chinese Communists. At the time of his death, Ford had been a priest for 34 years and a bishop for 16 years.
A cause for Ford's canonization has been introduced[ when? ] by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. John Vesey, the pastor of St Michael's Catholic Church in Flushing, Queens, is the postulator of the cause. [8]
On July 27, 2011, George Weigel wrote an article for the First Things blog, questioning why Ford has not yet been beatified. Wiegel opined that the process had been put on hold because of Roman authorities' concerns about offending the Chinese government. [9] Weigel further stated that "[persecuted] Catholics [in China] need the encouragement of a witness like that given by Francis Xavier Ford, whose blood may yet prove to have paved the King's Highway in the Middle Kingdom." [9]
Ford's cousin, Maryknoll sister Ita Ford, was one of four Catholic churchwomen who were tortured, raped and murdered in El Salvador by members of a military death squad on December 2, 1980. She had previously worked with the poor and war refugees as a Maryknoll Sister missionary in Bolivia and Chile.
The following are books by Bishop Ford, posthumously published:
The Archdiocese of New York is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City and the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. The Archdiocese of New York is the second-largest diocese in the United States by population, encompassing 296 parishes that serve around 2.8 million Catholics, in addition to hundreds of Catholic schools, hospitals and charities. The archdiocese also operates the well-known St. Joseph's Seminary, commonly referred to as Dunwoodie. The Archdiocese of New York is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of New York which includes the suffragan dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Ogdensburg, Rochester, Rockville Centre and Syracuse.
In Christianity, inculturation is the adaptation of Christian teachings and practices to cultures. This is a term that is generally used by Catholics, whereas Protestants, especially associated with the World Council of Churches, prefer to use the term "contextual theology".
The Maryknoll Society is is a Catholic society of apostolic life founded in the United States to serve as missionaries to the poor and marginalized.
Ita Ford, M.M. was an American Catholic Maryknoll Sister who served as a missionary in Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador. She worked with the poor and war refugees. On December 2, 1980, she was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionaries — Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke and Jean Donovan — by members of the military of El Salvador.
Thomas Frederick Price, MM was the American co-founder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, better known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.
The Missionary Society of St. Columban, commonly known as the Columbans, is a missionary Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right founded in Ireland in 1917 and approved by the Vatican in 1918. Initially it was known as the Maynooth Mission to China. Members may be priests, seminarians or lay workers. Fr John Blowick, one of the two founders of the Society, also founded the Missionary Sisters of St. Columban to share in their work. The society is dedicated to St. Columbanus. The current international headquarters is in Hong Kong.
James Edward Walsh, MM was an American Roman Catholic priest and a bishop in China. He was a member of the Maryknoll order, and a missionary in China.
Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School was a private, Roman Catholic high school in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Open from 1962 through 2014, it closed following a period of steeply falling enrollment and with an estimated $4 million in outstanding debt. Now called the Bishop Ford Educational Complex, the building is used by New York City Department of Education to house a pre-kindergarten school and two middle schools.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jiangmen/Kongmoon is a diocese located in the city of Jiangmen in the Ecclesiastical province of Guangzhou in China.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jiaying/Kayíng/Meizhou is a diocese of the Catholic Church which is headquartered in the city of Meizhou, in the ecclesiastical province of Guangzhou in China.
Octavio Cisneros is a Cuban-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn in New York City from 2006 to 2020.
Raymond Aloysius Lane, M.M. was an American Roman Catholic missionary. He served as Bishop of Fushun (1946) and Superior General of Maryknoll Fathers (1946-1956).
Adolph John Paschang, MM was an American Catholic bishop who was a member of the Maryknoll society. He was also a relief worker and educator working in the southern part of China in the early 20th century.
James Vincent Pardy, M.M.,파 야고보, was an American-born Catholic missionary and bishop. As a member of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll) he was assigned to missions in South Korea. He served as the first Bishop of Cheongju from 1962 to 1972.
Frederick Anthony Donaghy, M.M. was an American-born Catholic missionary and bishop. As a member of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), he was assigned to missions in China. He served as the Bishop of Wuzhou from 1956-1975.
Bernard Francis Meyer, M.M. was an American Catholic missionary. As a member of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), he was assigned to missions in China. He served as the Prefect Apostolic of Wuzhou from 1934 to 1939.
The presence of the Catholic Church in the Chinese province of Sichuan dates back to 1640, when two missionaries, Lodovico Buglio and Gabriel de Magalhães, through Jesuit China missions, entered the province and spent much of the 1640s doing evangelism.
After 52 years of tending to the spiritual, educational, physical and social development of the youth of Brooklyn, Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School has ceased operation as a school as of August 31, 2014.