The Legacy of Bishop Francis X. Ford

Jean-Paul Wiest

hortly after 5 o'clock one afternoon in January 1912, a 1952. He had fulfilled Christ's saying that a man can have no S priest entered the New York preparatory seminary on greater love than to lay down his life for his friends (In. 13:15). Madison Avenue to call upon the director of the New York branch Bishop Ford's accomplishments in China were acknowledged of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, located on the first by the papal internuncio, Antony Riberi, who called him "the floor of the same building. While he was rattling the door, a sem­ most advanced missioner in China." Of course, this is an over­ inarian came down the stairs and told him the office had already statement. By any measure, Francis Ford was extraordinary, but closed. As they left the building together, the priest revealed he the names of other Catholic or Protestant missioners, who also had come to discuss the details of the forthcoming opening of a deserved that compliment, come immediately to mind. My pur­ new type of seminary-one for foreign missions. pose is not to eulogize Ford, but to consider his contributions as The priest was Father James A. Walsh, co-founder of Mary­ a member of that group of "most advanced missioners" in knoll. The young man was Philip Furlong, future auxiliary bishop China. of New York. Furlong promptly excused himself and ran back to the preparatory seminary to bring the news to a friend who was deeply interested in foreign missions. Father Walsh had almost Bishop Ford's Theology of Mission reached Grand Central Station, where he would catch a train Bishop Ford often told the Maryknoll priests and Sisters working home to Hawthorne, New York, when a slightly built young man for him in the territory of Kaying that "We missioners are here for a double purpose, first of all to found the Church, and, sec­ ondly, to make converts.r" These objectives per se were not orig­ "For [Ford], the few inal. They defined the overall purpose of the Roman Catholic hundreds who gathered Church as well as most Protestant churches working in China in the early part of the twentieth century. Yet the way Ford posi­ around the altar tioned these two objectives and enriched their meaning, as well represented the entire as his methods of implementation, were innovative at the time Chinese nation." and reveal his deep spirituality. Ford put forth the establishment of the church as the mis­ sioner's primary objective; however, this did not mean-as it did with a gentle face and an attractive shyness caught up with him. for so many of his contemporaries-the construction of churches, Out of breath from hurrying, the young man said: "Father schools, and hospitals. For him it meant the training and devel­ Walsh, I would like to go to your foreign mission seminary." opment of a living structure of native priests, Sisters, and lay "That's good. What is your name?" asked Walsh. leaders. He realized, of course, that without conversions there "Frank Ford, Father," was the reply.' would be no Christian families to provide candidates for the pri­ Walsh had just recruited the first applicant to his new sem­ esthood, sisterhood, and lay leadership. inary. The next fall Ford was part of the first group of six Mary­ To ensure converts, Ford devised a special form of evange­ knoll seminarians who started their training on Sunset Hill in lization known as the Kaying method. He always denied, none­ Ossining at the newly established center for the young Catholic theless, that the gathering of individual converts was the primary Foreign Mission Society of America, the official name of Mary­ object of the missioner's apostolate. In an article written in 1932, knoll. Six years later, in 1918, he was one of the first four Mary­ he asked: knoll missioners to leave for China. In 1925, Ford became head of the newly created mission Is the conversion of souls really the main immediate object of the Church? If so, why keep priests at home to minister to Catholics? territory of Kaying (Iiaying) or Meihsien (Meixian) in the northeast Why send missioners to places that are hard to convert? Why not corner of Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province in China. Ten years concentrate them among the simple savages where thousands in­ later he was made a bishop. For his episcopal motto, Ford chose stead of hundreds might be baptized each year? Evidently there is the word condolere, meaning to have compassion, from the fifth a reason for the Church's present system: The object of Omission chapter of St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews. Better than anything work is not primarily to convert pagans, it is to establish the Cath­ else, perhaps, this motto exemplifies Bishop Ford's understand­ olic Church in pagan lands. The purpose is to preach the Gospel ing of his missionary vocation and of his relationship to the Chinese. and to build up as complete an organization as possible which will Although his great empathy for the Chinese of Kaying seemed itself later continue with better success the work of converting the 3 natural, it was the result of an effort-the logical implementation native populations. of his missionary vocation. His compassion for the Chinese led In conclusion, he stated again, "Even were the whole mission to the ultimate sacrifice of his life in a Canton prison in February field to prove a failure in respect to converts, it would still be worthwhile as followinpout our Savior's command to preach the Gospel to all nations." Jean-Paul Wiest is Research Director of the Maryknoll Society History Program. He is the author of Maryknoll in China: A History, 1915­ In pre-Vatican Council II times, the most important signs of 1955 (1988). Thisarticle isa revised version ofa paper read at themeeting the church's vitality were its size and its rate of expansion. Ford, of theAmerican Society ofChurch History in joint session with theAmer­ however, was always bothered by statistical mission reports that ican Catholic Historical Association held in Chicago in December 1986. calculated the church's success or failure in terms of buildings

130 International Bulletin of Missionary Research and numerical increases, because the spiritual dimension of the to eleven promising boys recruited from the territory of Kong­ church, after all, cannot be measured. For him, the few hundreds moon. In his activity report, he wrote: who gathered around the altar represented the entire Chinese nation. This understanding of the church was shared, at first, ... the preparatory seminary is without doubt the strongest effect only by a minority of foreign missioners but, during the late 1930s, of the year's work, for the future Chinese priests will be the back­ began to receive more widespread recognition. In later years, it bone of the Church in China. The seminary is really our motive was one of many factors that led the fathers of Vatican II to for coming to China-to found a native Church-and the vocations redefine the church as "the sacrament or sign of salvation" so far presented to us argue well for the strength of the Catholicity in our section of China for years to come. 6 (Lumen Gentium 1, 48). As Catholic theologian William Frazier wrote, in 1967, this epoch-making advance in the Roman Catholic In 1925, when he was transferred to eastern Kwangtung to Church's self-understanding was in sharp contrast with the image direct the new mission territory of Kaying, Ford immediately of the church projected by towering cathedrals, large schools, and started his own seminary with ten young boys. He transformed imposing hospitals. his rectory of five rooms into a seminary. By the next fall, he had twenty-one students and started building a permanent seminary. The rule of expansion of the Church is simply the need to give the For a man supposedly committed to build a church known for sign of salvation indigenous roots in every human situation. Be­ its membership rather than for its buildings, this seemed quite a yond this it is useless to probe as to how little and how large the breach of resolution. But Ford felt forced to provide a training Church is meant to be. The important thing is that the Church place for the future clergy: "We are building against our will." understand and faithfully pursue its call to raise the sign of sal­ vation in the world. 5 However, during the next twenty years, he did not engage in any other major construction: there was no imposing bishop's Ford would have had no problem endorsing such an understand­ residence, nor any place worth calling a cathedral. As a visiting ing of the church. missioner wrote, "The Kaying mission has one building, the seminary, with the missioners living in odd corners.:" The Establishment of a Native Church Bishop Ford paid special attention to the education of the seminarians. From experience during his early years in China, he During the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth realized that the Chinese priest, as he said, was seldom "a century, the movement toward the establishment of a native good mixer in the American sense of the term; he lived for the Chinese church within the Catholic church made little progress. most part within the walls of the Church property and is rarely Foreign bishops held all the positions of leadership, and many seen in the market place or at civil functions.?" missioners felt they belonged to a class superior to that of the Analyzing the cause of this attitude, Ford found that most Chinese priests. The excuse generally given was that the Chinese Chinese priests were village boys who had been brought up in were not ready, at least for the foreseeable future, to assume the the shelter of Catholic homes, protected from pagan influences. direction of the church in China. This in itself could be overcome, but Ford also discovered that This attitude was criticized in Rome when in 1919 Pope Ben­ traditional seminary curriculum lacked preparation in the Chinese edict XV indirectly criticized the mission work in China. In his classics, history, and culture, and neglected the modern sciences. apostolic letter Maximum Illud, he declared how sad he was to To correct these deficiencies in his Kaying seminary, Ford made think that there were still countries where the Catholic faith had a point of having most of the regular high school subjects taught been preached for several centuries and where civilization had by the best Chinese lay teachers he could afford. As a result, St. produced people distinguished in most fields of arts and sciences, Joseph's Seminary became known not only as one of the best and yet these countries had no native bishops and the native minor seminaries in South China but also as an outstanding high clergy was still maintained in a position of inferiority (Maximum school. Illud, 13). He exhorted missioners to establish seminaries and to The young men in the Kaying seminary were trained not take particular care in training native priests and in turning over only as pastors for the existing Catholics; they were also trained responsibility to them. to be missioners themselves, alert to openings, alive to oppor­ At the time, Ford had just arrived in China. The pope's letter tunities, exploring possibilities, reaching out to new villages for was not well received by many seasoned missioners, who thought new converts. Ford reminded his Maryknollers that it was their the pope had been influenced by rebel confreres such as Fathers responsibility to set the pattern: "The Chinese priest's idea of Vincent Lebbe and Anthony Cotta. Ford, on the contrary, used priestly work will be derived from our manner of thinking and the pope's words as the foundation for plans for the immediate talking and acting.':" implementation of a native church. His intention was to build a At the same time, Ford sent some of his most promising self-governing church not burdened by Western institutions and seminarians to Rome for theology and graduate study. Upon financially self-reliant. His plan called not only for well-trained returning, these priests were given important responsibilities. By Chinese clergy and sisterhoods, but also for a well-educated lay 1948 Kaying's vicar general was Chinese and the seminary had leadership to take positions of responsibility in building a modern its own Chinese rector heading an all-Chinese faculty of priests China. and lay persons. It seems practically certain that if the trend had not been interrupted, Kaying's next bishop would have been Ford's Seminary Chinese. The legacy of Bishop Ford is recalled with much fondness by From his earliest days in China, Francis Ford was Maryknoll's his Chinese priests: main driving force for the establishment of seminaries. In 1921, while pastor in the mission territory of Kongmoon (Iiangmen), I can say that because of his work we were instilled with a strong Maryknoll's first territory in China, he began preparing young sense of loyalty to our diocese. teenagers for the priesthood. Two years later he started a formal Bishop Ford had become so Chinese that we Chinese priests had program and the nucleus of a seminary by opening his rectory

July 1988 131 to be careful of what we said in his presence about our people. family; Sisters whose main role was to spread the good news by Bishop Ford was there to defend them.... living among the people. I took Father Cheung, the vicar general of Kaying, to the grave of Like most of the Chinese priests who were usually not as­ Bishop Ford. There he began to cry. He missed Bishop Ford who signed to work under Maryknoll missioners, the professed Chinese had a great influence on him. 10 Sisters never worked with the Maryknoll Sisters. The Maryknoll Sisters were sent to the east of the territory and the Chinese Sisters worked in the west. Bishop Ford seemed to have realized that Ford's Novitiate the key to true indigenization was to let the Chinese take charge andto reduceas muchas possibleanyoutside-thatis, Maryknoll­ Just as Bishop Ford was convinced that the Kaying church had interference. In that transitional stage, the best way to maintain no permanent future if he did not prepare a native clergy to take harmonious relationships was to keep responsibilities and places over the duties of his Maryknoll priests, so was he convinced that of work separate between his foreign and Chinese priests and Chinese Sisters must be trained for a successful apostolate among Sisters. women and children. Because of the traditional Chinese segre­ gation of the sexes and the absence of missionary Sisters, the Catholic system of evangelization in China had long been defec­ The Laity tive. Missionary priests had concentrated on men without in­ sisting that their wives and children be instructed and baptized The Christian laity that Ford had in mind was primarily a re­ at the same time. Ford thought he had found the reason for the sponsible laity and, to the extent possible, a well-educated laity. shallow roots of the Catholic church in China: "Had we won Ford insisted that his Catholics not only witness to their faith on over the women to the true worship during the past three cen­ Sundays, but continually live out their beliefs in the presence of turies, the Church would have had a far more glorious tale to their non-Christian friends and relatives. Rather than initiating tell."u Evangelization of women and children became the special and supporting all kinds of charitable works such as clinics and apostolate of the Sisters. schools, Ford concentrated on establishing the church as a com­ munity of believers with the hope that the community would Bishop Ford wanted his native Sisters-he called them Sister provide for its own needs. Catechists of OurLady-tobe like Maryknoll Sisters, fully engaged To make up for the lack of Catholic schools, which he could in direct evangelization, but even more effective because they not afford and which would absorb too many of his missionary were Chinese. Consequently, he asked the Maryknoll Sisters to personnel, Ford opted for hostels. In 1927, barely two years after train them for that specific purpose. The aspirants boarded at he arrived, he opened the first dormitory for Catholic boys at­ Rosary Hall where the Maryknoll Sisters oversaw their religious tending high schools in Kaying City. That same year he also sent development. eight young men to the Catholic university in Peking and the In many ways his plan differed from the traditional formation Jesuit normal school in Shanghai to be trained as teachers. Ten of Sisters. Instead of rushing the aspirants into religious life, Ford years later, Ford sponsored four high school dormitories for stu­ required that they first complete their middle school studies in dents attending government schools in the larger towns of his one of Kaying City's government middle schools. During these territory and a hostel for girls attending the government middle years the girls could weigh the pros and cons of unmarried life. school in Kaying City. The role of the Maryknoll Fathers and By keeping in touch with the Chinese society, they learned how Sisters in the hostels was to provide an atmosphere of quiet study to manage ordinary human relationships. They gained poise, self­ and to enhance the development of the "natural and super­ confidence, and a spirit of their own, which armed them against natural virtues" of their students. The Sisters, in particular, felt becoming second-rate submissive copies of Maryknoll Sisters. they had an important role to play in guiding middle-school-age Once they graduated, the aspirants were formally admitted girls: as apprentices to sisterhood and followed a two-and-a-half-year period of formation common to most religious orders known as The middle-school girl in Hakka China was a pioneer in a new postulancy and novitiate. During their first year of training, Ford field: she lived a life that her elders had never lived; there were ensured that the native Sisters study more than the traditional no traditions to guide her; she was a puzzle to her mother and the courses on the obligations of religious life, religion, and apolo­ older women of the village .... As a member of a new movement getics. Courses in psychology, sociology, and economics were among Chinese girls the middle-school student needed under­ added to prepare the Chinese Sisters to be as self-reliant as pos­ standing and direction. Therein lay our apostolate." sible. A wide range of manual skills were constantly practiced to Although these small hostels accommodated no more than make the novitiate self-supporting and to develop in each Sister thirty students each, they enabled Maryknollers to come in con­ the ability to improvise and to do rough work under less than tact with a large number of students and teachers at the govern­ propitious conditions. These courses and skills also taught the ment schools: novices how to make effective contact with women by experi­ encing their daily work. My purpose in coming to China [explained Ford to one student] During the second year of the novitiate, emphasis was put is to preach the Gospel of God. Although these students are not on letting the native Sisters develop on their own. They were Catholics, my objective is to help them know God; to help them sent for short periods in twos or threes to outstations without feel the presence of God in their mind. I would not ask them to being accompanied by Maryknoll Sisters. Living in two-Sister be baptized. What I want is that when they leave Kaying and go convents prepared them for their life as professed Sisters; they to some other place, they still feel the presence of God. The ob­ had to order their lives and their apostolates by themselves, guided jective of preaching the Gospel is to save the soul. If a person by their Chineseness and their religious training. Such training finally can get close to God, the objective of preaching the Gospel is achieved.i" did not give the native Sisters any sense of inferiority. They felt that they and the Maryknoll Sisters were sisters in the same big

132 International Bulletin of Missionary Research "A monumental model of critical historical scholarship in missions, Maryknoll in China is a tribute worthy of the spiritual legacy of America's Catholic Foreign Mission Society." -Gerald H. Anderson Overseas Ministries Study Center

" Jean-Paul Wiest enables the student of mission his­ tory to follow step by step the often painful progress of the China mission from its birth in 1918 to the persecu­ tion that began with the Communist triumph in 1949 and its fateful aftermath of the 1950's. " -John Tracy Ellis The Catholic University of America

"Required reading for anyone who wishes to evaluate the Catholic missionary past in China, understand con­ temporary Chinese Christianity, and relate as a friend to the Chinese Church of the future. "From 90,000 pages of archival documentation, 10,000 photographs, and 256 interviews, Jean-Paul Wiest has created a tapestry depicting thirty-seven years of interaction between China and Maryknoll. Often told in the words of the missionaries themselves, this story informs, instructs, and gives hope for the future of Christianity in China." -Edward J. Malatesta, S. J. University of San Francisco

" This superb Sino-study by Jean-Paul Wiest is a 'must ' • for everyone who would know the situation of the Church in continental China (inclusive of Manchuria) in the first half of this century. It recounts the contribution made to the Church in a portion of this vast country by the Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers and Sisters during the thirty-seven years of service to China during this nina period. " -William J. McCormack Jean-Paul Wiest The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 615 pp.; bibliog.; index; photos. Hardcover $29.95

Ie Ie Archie R, Crouch, Steven Agoratus, risiian itv nCh na ~merson, Ch \ " ;1 Arthur and Debra E. Soled AScholar's Guide to Resources in the Libraries and Archives in the United States

Based on a comprehensive survey of over 1200 libraries, archives, historical societies, religious orders, and denominational headquarters throughout the U.S., this major reference provides detailed information on repositories of material on Christian missions in China. The entries , arranged geographically by state and city, include the name, address , and telephone number of the institutions; names and titles of key personnel; description of holdings, including type of item, source , and time span; finding aids and information on accessiblilty. The many types of materials range from diaries and personal correspondence to oral histories and reports from the field .

Fall 1988 Approximately 800 pp. c..7J-1. E Sharpe INC. 80 Business Park Drive Armonk , New York 10505 DirectEvangelization gations. In short, Rome sets its approval on our thesis that foreign women can be missioners just as foreign men can; or rather it can Bringing the Chinese people close to God was the goal of Bishop be interpreted even more strongly as affirming that our Sisters Ford's use of "direct evangelization." Ford's methods in Kay­ should be direct missioners. I? ing were particularly revolutionary when applied to the Mary­ Together with the Sisters, Ford refined what became known knoll Sisters. as the Kaying method. It was a multifaceted type of direct ap­ The nature of the Sisters' apostolate as envisioned by Ford ostolic work which involved (a) making friendly contacts with was radically different from traditional practices. Their work was non-Christian women until they spontaneously asked about the not to be institutional in character, as was the case with most Sisters' Christian beliefs; (b) instructing women who were inter­ Sisters in the United States and certainly in China; their purpose ested in pursuing the topic of Christian faith; (c) visiting and was not to supervise asylums, hospitals, 'or schools; they should providing follow-up instruction for newly baptized Catholics in­ not perform medical or charitable work, or engage in educational cluding courses toward confirmation and marriage; (d) visiting projects. Their sole aim was direct evangelization-s-leading non­ old Christians, faithful as well as lapsed or lax Catholics; (e) con­ Christian women to embrace Catholicism, instructing them for ducting Sunday school classes; and (f) training catechists through baptism, and watching over them during their first years as new class and field work. Catholics. To qualify as a missionary Sister, said Bishop Ford, the The distinctive feature of the Sisters' method of apostolate Maryknoll Sisters had to become experts at making contacts: was that instead of residing in a large convent, they were sent two-by-two to live in a Chinese house that often was also used A contact Sister is expansive, expressive, exhilarating and exhibi­ as the women's catechumenate. They visited and mingled with tive; in common language, a person large-hearted, ready-tongued, the women. Their small convents were not to provide enclosures easily pleased and not dismayed by crowds. . . . As a contact visitor but to serve as rallying points for old and new Catholics, non­ to pagan women, she literally penetrates into the inner courts where superstition has its firmest foothold; she attacks the enemy at his Christians, and catechumens. strongest fortress and until this has fallen, it is vain to hope for a Every time Ford addressed the Sisters, he emphasized the solid Catholic family. 14 link between contemplative prayer and mission activity by re­ minding them of their role as contact persons. He stressed that When he invited the Maryknoll Sisters to Kaying in 1934 for he had invited them to Kaying primarily to do visiting of non­ the purpose of evangelizing the women, Sister Paul McKenna, Christian homes. Ford said, "Sisters, I want you to go out to the Sisters' superior in South China, saw an opportunity for the the villages. I know you are going to miss mass but your presence Sisters to realize their missionary vocation: "Monsignor Ford there is going to mean much more than what you give up in invites us to the Kaying mission as missioners-not only as Sisters regard to the mass for those people."18 for this or that work.... Having the broader outline, more on His profound spirituality deeply influenced the Sisters. They the basis of the Maryknoll men will give us the broader viewpoint learned to become living houses of prayer, so to speak, wherever which will make us more truly missioners-foreign missioners to a their work took them, on the streets as well as over the mountain pagan people.T" passes; they discovered how to visit with God, not in the chapel Ford's approach to the evangelization of female non-Chris­ but as they walked along the trails or sat on buses or bicycles. 19 tians proved to be most innovative. In selecting the Sisters to Given the opportunity to become involved in the direct apos­ spearhead this apostolate, the head of the Kaying territory tried tolate, the Maryknoll Sisters dispelled the objections that had something with no precedent in the mission history of the Cath­ prevented religious women from serving as missionaries. They olic church. This new approach, which responded to the young proved, for example, that Sisters could endure as many physical Maryknoll Sisters' deepest aspirations, was greeted enthusiasti­ hardships as priests, that they could handle dangerous situations, cally at the home novitiate in the United States. The future of this and that they could adapt their religious rules and schedules to type of apostolate, however, was still uncertain because it was fit an apostolate life outside convent walls. only an experiment the Holy See could discontinue at any time. The traditional organization of the mission was altered. The Finally, in March 1939, Cardinal Pietro Fumasoni-Biondi, prefect Sisters were no longer auxiliaries but full participants. The priest of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, wrote still assumed the overall direction of the parish, but the approach a letter to Mother Mary Joseph (the Maryknoll Sisters' Mother to the work, including the direct apostolate, was more that of a General) telling her of Rome's approval: team. The Sisters were in charge of the women and children while the priests concentrated on the apostolate among men. The Sisters I wish you to know that I believe your greatest accomplishments were able to accomplish things that no male missioner had been lie before you through your direct cooperation in the conversion able to do: mingle with the women in their own environment, of non-Christian souls. I am aware of the courage and devotion which many Maryknoll Sisters have displayed in the work of con­ speak their "kitchen" language, talk from a woman's point of version, particularly in the vicariate of Kaying, where they have view, and gear their instructions to the concrete daily life of Chinese gone from house to house among the people and they have proven peasant women. valuablehelpers to the Fathers in reaching the non-Christians;" As a result, the Chinese Catholic Church in Kaying territory began to change. Its membership, which had been prominently Upon learning the good news, Ford jubilantly told his missioners: male, became more balanced; more children were baptized with their mothers and continued to receive religious education in Roma locuta est. Rome considers the greatest accomplishments of the Sisters will result, not from institutional work, but from direct Sunday school and during the summer vacation. Women converts cooperation in reaching non-Christians. This spontaneous appro­ joined the budding Catholic Action groups and became actively bation on the part of Rome has resolved whatever misgivings I involved in the apostolate of other women. may have had on the experiment. Rome has gone out of its way As already mentioned, the Maryknoll Sisters imparted this to orientate the work of the Maryknoll Sisters differentiating it from same zeal for the direct apostolate to the native Sisters they were work hitherto considered the province of Sisters of older congre­ training. These Chinese Sisters focused primarily on direct contact

134 International Bulletin of Missionary Research with non-Christians and on catechumenates. They became the the direct participation by religious women in evangelizing. He first of a new breed of women religious who would follow the singled out the "itinerant evangelical penetration" of the two­ same path in the 1950s and 1960s. Sister convent system in Kaying and the type of mobile missionary Because the lifestyle and apostolate pursued by the Mary­ apostolate as the model to emulate. 21 The small experiment started knoll Sisters in China established a new pattern of Catholic ap­ in 1934 by Francis X. Ford and a few Maryknoll Sisters had led ostolic work, it not only affected communities of Chinese Sisters, to an important change in the role of women in the apostolic but also had repercussions on the role of women religious in the mission of the church. church. Out of their convents, on the roads, mixing with non­ Christians, the Maryknoll Sisters provided a new model of mis­ Conclusion sion activity for nuns and contributed to modernization in the Catholic church. Other women's religious orders-many of which Bishop Ford, Maryknoll's first seminarian, has left his imprint were not primarily aiming at foreign mission-adopted methods not only on Maryknoll but also on the whole church. In his the­ of direct apostolate similar to those of the Maryknoll Sisters. In ology and his methods, he was for the most part a ground-breaker 1957 Leon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens of Belgium, wrote to Sister who prepared the way for the transformation of the Catholic Therese Grondin of Maryknoll that, inspired by the Maryknoll church at Vatican II. But above all, he emerges as a spiritual man Sisters, he had just launched an experiment in Europe involving possessed by a vision, which today still remains meaningful: forty convents of Sisters and twenty houses of Brothers who were stressing direct evangelization by apostolic teams. He further Never look down on the Chinese people.... We have very little extolled the value of this program in his book The Gospel to Every to offer them of our own American culture because we are only barely two hundred years old.... When you introduce the people Creature. 20 In 1967, at the international meeting in Rome of superiors to Christianity, go back to the time when the Church was a fishing vessel along the Sea of Galilee. 22 general of missionary organizations, Gregorio Petro Cardinal Agagianian, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propa­ Bishop Ford was well ahead of his time; we may not have gation of the Faith, stressed the primacy of evangelization and yet caught up with him. Notes------­

1. This account is a faithful reconstruction of the meeting. It is based 14. Maryknoll Sisters Archives, Sister Paulita Hoffman's Collection of on recollections by Bishop Furlong and Bishop Walsh, which are Talks by Bishop Ford, "The Type of Sister for Direct Evangeliza­ preserved in the Maryknoll Fathers Archives. Previously published tion," p. 1. accounts of the same meeting differ, sometimes substantially, from 15. Maryknoll Sisters Archives, CHP21F2A. Letter of Sister Paul McKenna this version; see in particular Glenn D. Kittler, The Maryknoll Fathers to Mother Mary Joseph, April 5, 1934.

(Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1961), p. 93. 16. Maryknoll Sisters Archives, Sister Imelda Sheridan, IIA Brief His­ 2. Raymond Lane, Stone in the King's Highway-The Life and Writings of tory of the South China Region, 1921-1958," pp. 30-31. Bishop Francis X. Ford (New York: McMullen, 1953), p. 24. 17. Maryknoll Sisters Archives, Sister Paulita Hoffman's Collection, June 3. Ford, in The Field Afar, September 1932, p. 236. 29, 1939, "Foundation Day Report on Kaying Missions," p. 5. 4. Ibid., p. 237. 18. Maryknoll China History Project: Interview of Father Dennis Slattery. 5. William Frazier, "Guidelines for a New Theology of Mission," 19. Sister Therese Grondin, "Contemplative Prayer and Mission World Mission 18, no. 4 (Winter 1967-68): 20. Activity," in Maryknoll-Taiwan, Mission Forum, September 1982. 6. Maryknoll Sisters Archives, Box 48, Folder 03, Yeungkong Convent 20. Letter of Cardinal Suenens to Sister Marcelline (Sister Therese Gron­ Diary, December 1924. din), June 18, 1957, quoted in Sister Mary Ann Schintz, "An In­ 7. John Donovan, ThePagoda andtheCross (New York: Charles Scribner's vestigation of the Modernization Role of the Maryknoll Sisters in Sons, 1967), p. 93. China," unpublished dissertation, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978, 8. Ibid., p. 95. p. 132. Leon-Joseph Suenens, The Gospel to Every Creature (West­ 9. Ibid., p. 96. minster, Md.: Newman Press, 1957), pp. 83-112; the original edition 10. Maryknoll China History Project: Interviews of Chinese Priests. in French was entitled L'Eglise en etat de mission. 11. Donovan, Pagoda, p. 99. 21. Gregorio Petro Agagianian, "New Horizons on the Missionary 12. Therese Grondin (Sister Marcelline), Sisters Carry the Gospel (New Apostolate," Christianity to the World, 13, no. 1 (1968): 63-64. York: Maryknoll Publications, 1956), p. 55. 22. Maryknoll China History Project: Interview of Sisters Louise Kroeger 13. Maryknoll China History Project: Interviews of Former Chinese and Madeleine Sophie Karlon. Students in Maryknoll Hostels.

Bibliography Selected Works about Francis X. Ford

Selected Works by Francis X. Ford Donovan, John. ThePagoda andtheCross: TheLife ofBishop Ford ofMaryknoll. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967. Bishop Ford wrote countless short pieces on missions. Many were Grondin, Therese (Sister Marcelline). Sisters Carry the Gospel. Maryknoll, published, and can be found in the following periodicals: N.Y.: Maryknoll Publications, 1956. The American Ecclesiastical Review Lane, Raymond A., ed. Stone in the King's Highway: Selections from the China Missionary Bulletin Writings of Bishop Francis X. Ford (1892-1952). New York: McMullen Maryknoll Mission Letters (1942-46) Books, 1953. Maryknoll-The Field Afar Sheridan, Robert. Compassion: TheSpiritofFrancis X. Ford, M.M. Ossining, Among Bishop Ford's spiritual conferences, one series on the N.Y.: Maryknoll Publications, 1982. Holy Spirit was published: Tsai, Mark (Chai). "Bishop Ford, Apostle of South China." American Ecclesiastical Review 127 (October 1952): 241-47. Come, Holy Spirit. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1976. "To Have Compassion." The Anthonian 59 (Fourth Quarter, 1985).

July 1988 135