This is a photograph of the "graduates of the Sacred Heart School at Kachow [now Gaozhou]. Seated: Frs. Schmidt, Connors and Paschang with priest guests." Born in Massachusetts, Fr. Connors was ordained to the priesthood in 1927 and was then assigned to Kongmoon, South China. After language study he was sent to assist in the Kochow Mission. While working there he visited the leprosarium at Sheklung. He was immediately attracted to the work which he was later to devote his life. He taught English at the Kochow Sacred Heart School and then assisted at Yeungkong. In 1933 he was assigned to the apostolate for lepers, a large colony of whom led a precarious existence in a cemetery outside Sunwui. He spent eleven years in China, five of them with victims of Hansen's disease -- Bishop Paschang was born in Martinsburg, MO. He entered Maryknoll in 1917 and was ordained in 1921 and assigned to Kongmoon. He was later named Vicar Apostolic of Kongmoon and was consecrated bishop in 1937. When the Japanese invaded South China they exiled him to Macau, but he escaped to Free China and later returned to Kongmoon. When the Communists came to power he was taken into custody, put on trial and held for ransom (none was paid). He was taken to Macau and released to Hong Kong in 1952 and remained there until his death in 1968.
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