Francis Xavier Ford

Francis Xavier Ford, MM (January 11, 1892 - February 21, 1952) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Kaying from 1946 until his death in 1952. He was a member of the Maryknoll Missionaries in China. Because of his torture by the Communist regime and death in prison, he is considered a martyr. His cause for his canonization has begun, granting him the religious title of Servant of God.

Early life and priesthood 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. He was the first person to matriculate in this institution. He was ordained on December 5, 1917, and became one of the first four American Catholic priests to arrive in China in 1918.

Missionary service

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. He was consecrated a bishop by James Anthony Walsh, the Superior General of the Maryknoll Society, on September 21, 1935.

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. Nevertheless, Ford remained at his post, aiding Chinese guerrillas, helping downed Allied airmen escape, relieving war refugees in distress.

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. 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."

Family 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.

Memorials In 1952, the Maryknoll Fathers in Hong Kong founded a co-educational primary school and named it Bishop Ford Memorial School . The school was the first established by the Maryknoll Fathers in Hong Kong after the Second World War, and is now managed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. In 1962, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn named one of its high schools after Ford. Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School was accredited by the Regents of the State of New York and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. It was located in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn. Due to a 75% decline in enrollment between 2006 and 2014, the school closed at the end of the 2013–2014 academic year.