This is a photograph of Fr. James McCormick and Bishop Ford [second row, center] with Chinese men and boys on the occasion of the blessing of the Kaying [now Meixien] cathedral that the group stands in front of. Rev. McCormick was born in Scranton, PA. He entered The Venard, Maryknoll's Apostolic College, in 1921, and was ordained in 1931. He was assigned to Kaying that year and returned to the U.S. in 1940. Returning to Kaying in 1945, he was expelled from China in 1951. He spend the rest of his mission career in Taiwan. -- Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bishop Ford was the first student to enter the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 5, 1917 and the following year he accompanied Fathers Price, Meyer and James E. Walsh to China. They began working in Yeungkong and the Kongmoon territory of South China. In 1925, Fr. Ford was assigned to the Kaying diocese. Ten years later, in 1935, Bishop James Anthony Walsh, founder of Maryknoll, consecrated Msgr. Francis Ford as the first Bishop of Kaying. He remained in China throughout World War II. In 1950 Bishop Ford was placed under arrest with his secretary Sr. Joan Marie, MM, placed on trial and sentenced to prison. After a year in prison, Bishop Ford died on February 21, 1952. Sr. Joan Marie confirmed his death when she was released the following September.
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