This is a photograph of Dr. Blaber with a group of male patients he treated at the leprosarium at Kongmoon [now Jiangmen]. In the rear is Fr. Joseph Sweeney, a Maryknoll priest who worked with Dr. Blaber. Dr. Harry Blaber, from Brooklyn, New York went to China for Maryknoll in 1935 to work with Frs. Joseph Sweeney and Francis Connors in their leprosarium in south China. After an initial five years he returned to the U.S., married and went back to China with his wife for another two years. -- Born in Connecticut, Fr. Sweeney entered Maryknoll in 1915 and was ordained to the priesthood on February 8, 1920. In 1921 he was assigned to China. In 1924 he transferred to Korea and in 1927 to Fushun, Manchuria. In 1932 he returned to China. He established a leper colony in Kongmoon. He was interned by the Communists, released in 1953 and returned to the United States. In 1955 he again took up work with lepers in Korea.
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