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Home , Francis Xavier Ford, Maryknoll

16 January 16, 2021 | TheTablet.org The Pro-Life Newspaper TheTablet.org | January 16, 2021 17

The prayer book used by In 1912, when the current St. ’s Ford in 1909 as a student Church was dedicated, Ford was among at Cathedral College, the altar servers at the parish. The group Manhattan. was known as the Sanctuary Boys. Today, St. Joseph’s church serves as the 1892 1900 1902 1909 FROM 1912 Co-Cathedral of the Brooklyn Diocese.

Francis Ford as a seminarian, Xavier circa 1915. 1915 Ford (above) TO is born BISHOP FORD’S GLOBAL JOURNEY OF FAITH on Jan. 11, 1892. he cause of for Bishop Ford has taken on Father Ford was ordained a priest on Dec. 5, 1917 at The Ford special meaning in the Diocese of Brooklyn, where he was born and in Ossining, N.Y. Bishop Thomas Cusack of family lived at 12 raised before beginning his journey of faith. • Brooklyn is where Bish- Albany ordained Ford and two other Maryknoll seminarians Washington Park (Cumberland T in the Ossining farmhouse chapel. 1917 op Ford first learned about the Catholic faith as a boy through his family’s love St.) in Sacred Heart parish near When Ford was 10 years old, he was a student at St. Joseph’s the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Two and from the examples of his teachers at St. Joseph’s School. • As this timeline Academy, Prospect Heights, conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph. Father Ford (standing, left) with the first group of years later, the family moved to shows, he attended the seminary to become a priest and, while there, decided to 432 Carlton Ave. in St. Joseph’s missioners ready to set out for China on Sept. 7, 1918. parish, Prospect Heights. become a Maryknoll in China. His decision to travel to the other side Others included Father Thomas E. Price, 1918 of the world to preach the Gospel was a bold one — one that made a difference M.M. (seated, left), Bishop James On a return visit to Maryknoll A. Walsh, M.M. (seated, center), An The Ford family circa 1900 included his in Ossining, N.Y. in 1928 were in the lives of thousands of people in China. Father James E. Walsh, M.M. official parents, Austin and Elizabeth. The future (from left) Father Bernard (seated, right), and Father Bernard portrait bishop (standing, left) was the sixth of eight Meyers, Bishop James E. F. Meyer, M.M. (standing, right). of Bishop children born to the deeply-religious couple. Walsh, Father James A. Walsh, Ford and Father Ford. from Father Ford reads a newspaper on the Pakkai Language 1935. 1929-1939 1928 School’s upper veranda in the early 1920s. 1920s

A formal portrait of Father Father Ford Ford was taken in 1929 with young for his appointment parishioners as Prefect Apostolic in China’s of Kaying, China. The Yeungkong Prefecture was raised parish in the Father Ford was the escort for a to the status of a Vicariate A map shows the march from Kaying to the prison camp in early 1920s. Maryknoll cameraman who set out Apostolic in 1935, with Ford Waichow that Bishop Ford was forced to endure after being to film the early mission Scene from the episcopal named Vicar Apostolic, for captured by Chinese Communist forces in April 1951. work in the 1920s. of Bishop Ford in September 1935 at the which he was appointed titular Maryknoll Sisters Motherhouse. bishop of Etenna. Father Ford with a Maryknoll and an unidentified woman in China during the 1920s. April 12, 1949: Bishop Ford with In 1962, the Diocese of Brooklyn named one of Bishop John F. Lesinski, O.P. and its new diocesan high schools after Bishop Ford. Bishop of Changting, China, at Bishop Ford Diocesan High School, later named Bishop Ford died on February 21, 1952, in a prison. The Bishop Ford’s installation as the Bishop Ford Central Catholic H.S., was located Chinese characters on his headstone read, “The grave of Ford.” bishop of the newly-established in Park Slope. The school closed at the end of He was the first American Diocese of Kaying. the 2013-2014 academic year after a decline in bishop and fourth American civilian enrollment. known to have died in the prisons of 1949 Chinese Communists. 1962

Bishop Ford’s coat 2017 of arms bears the motto “Condolere” 1948 1950 1951 1952 A portrait of Bishop Francis X. Ford is carried into the sanctuary of St. Joseph’s Co- which means “to Bishop Ford with a group of Chinese The inscription on A Chinese newspaper reports on Cathedral, Brooklyn, on Nov. 3, 2017, as the Diocese of Brooklyn kicked off its efforts to have compassion.” priests in 1948. Bishop Ford’s 1950 the imprisonment of Bishop Ford have Bishop Ford proclaimed a . Relatives of Bishop Ford and members of the Chinese Christmas card. and includes the only known photo Catholic community attended. After a preliminary study, the Vatican has named Bishop (bottom) of the bishop in prison. Ford as a , worthy of consideration for sainthood.