Francis Xavier Ford

Francis Xavier Ford
Born	January 11, 1892 Brooklyn
Died	February 21, 1952 Canton, China
Cause of death	torture
Resting place	unknown
Nationality	United States
Citizenship	USA
Alma mater	Cathedral College
Occupation(s)	Missionary, bishop, priest, educator
Title	Bishop
Parent(s)	Austin Brendan Ford and Elizabeth Rellihan Ford
Relatives	Ita Ford
Website	http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bford.html

Francis Xavier Ford M.M. (January 11, 1892-February 21, 1952) was an American Roman Catholic missionary in China. He was born in Brooklyn, NY the son of Austin Brendan Ford and Elizabeth Rellihan Ford. He attended Cathedral College (New York) and Maryknoll Seminary. He was the first person to matriculate in the latter institution. He was ordained on 5 December 1917. In 1918, he served in Yeongkong, Southern China and, in 1921, opened the first Maryknoll seminary in China. He was named Prefect Apostolic of a new mission in Northern Kwangtung at Kaying in 1925, and appointed titular bishop of Etenne and Vicar Apostolic of Kaying in 1935.

Ministry

In twenty years of ministering to the Chinese, Francis Ford increased his flock from 9,000 to 20,000, built schools, hostels and churches. He played an important role is establishing the first overseas convent for Maryknoll sisters. When World War II started, the Bishop remained at his post, aiding Chinese guerrillas, helping downed Allied airmen escape, relieving war refugees in distress.

Bishop Ford was ordained as a Maryknoll priest and was sent to minister in Southern China as one of the first four Maryknoll missionaries sent to that country on 5 December 1917, he was ordained as a bishop on 21 September 1935. He was chairman of the Chinese Catholic Welfare Conference for Southern China. He remained at his post during World War II even though Kaying was surrounded by Japanese troops.

He was imprisoned by the Communist Chinese in 1950 and died in prison in Canton February 21, 1952.

Torture & Martyrdom

His treatment at the hands of his torturers is attested to by Sr. Joan Marie Ryan, the bishop's secretary in Kwangtung and fellow missionary. The Bishop was the first American Roman Catholic bishop and fourth American civilian known to have died in the prisons of the Chinese Communists.

In December, 1950 the Communists placed the Bishop and Sr. Joan Marie under house arrest and charged them with trumped-up charges of espionage. Though never tried, the Bishop was taken from his home four months later and publicly paraded, beaten and degraded in some of the cities in which he had done mission work since 1918.

In one town, a Communist-orchestrated mob beating was so intense that Bishop Ford's Communist guards fled in terror. Though knocked to the ground repeatedly, Bishop Ford did his best to walk calmly through the gauntlet until his guards returned. In another town his neck was bound with a wet rope 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 him to undress before Sr. Joan Marie. The last time Sr. Joan Marie saw the Bishop alive was in February, 1952 just before he died. She reported seeing his once dark hair had tuned completely white and he was so emaciated that a fellow prisoner remarked the Bishop looked "like a sack of potatoes."

His 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. Bishop Ford was Maryknoll's first martyr and the first to be martyred at the hands of Chinese Communists. The martyr's remains were never found having been intentionally scattered by the Chinese Communists. By the time of his death, Bishop Ford had been ordained for 34 years and a bishop for 16 years.

Process of Canonization

Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Anthony Catanello of Brooklyn, NY is the Promoter of the Cause for Bishop Ford.

Bishop Ford is the cousin of yet another Roman Catholic Maryknoll martyr, Sr. Ita Ford M.M. (April 23, 1940 – December 2, 1980) who was tortured, raped and murdered along with fellow Catholic missionaries Maura Clarke, M.M., laywoman Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, O.S.U.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.

Memorials

In 1962 the Diocese of Brooklyn named one of its high schools (now known as the Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School) after Ford. The school is accredited by the Regents of the State of New York and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. It is located in the Park Slope area at 500 19th Street.

Biographies

• Betz, Eva K. (1953). To Far Places: The Story of Francis X. Ford. New York: Hawthorn Books. OCLC 2940634.

• Donovan, John F. (1967). The Pagoda and the Cross. The Life of Bishop Ford of Maryknoll. New York: Scribner. OCLC 1376571.

Publications-Books

• Ford, Francis X. (1953). Stone in the King's Highway. New York: McMullen. OCLC 1124239.
• Ford, Francis X. (1976). Come Holy Ghost. Orbis Books. ISBN 0883440679 9780883440674. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)