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A Martyr's Victory in a Spiritual Sense
Bishop Francis X. Ford was a well educated, enormously gentle
man, that
was kicked, beaten, insulted, and surrounded by hatred. All this
because of one
mans beliefs. He was born in Brooklyn in 1892. He was the founder of
the
Maryknoll Missionaries and was the first bishop of Kwantung, China. He
was
killed in the late 1950's in China, he was charged with anti-Communist,
counterrevolutionary, and espionage activities, his real "crime" was
for being a
Christian and a foreigner.
During his life Bishop Ford illustrated the cardinal virtue of
fortitude,
which is the ability to overcome fear in order to pursue good; "it is
an active
sake to overcome evil for the sake of gods kingdom" said Huggard. When
he tookoffice in China, the country was already feeling the effects of the
massive
Japanese advance across Asia. In a short time millions lost there
lives and
were driven from there homes. Bishop ford refused to leave the war-
torn country,
even after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United
States into
the war. During this time he distinguished himself by the way he cared
for war
refugees. Chinese paid a terrible price during this war with Japan, but
even
more costly was a civil war that followed. Bishop Ford exemplified the
virtue
of fortitude, by not leaving the war-torn country and staying to try to
pursue
good.
During this time of war, many would wonder what was the reason
for him
to stay in China, and what was his why to live? In the Novel A Mans
Search For
Meaning, Nietzsche says "he who has a why to live can bear with
almost any
how". If Ford had left the country during the time of war, there would
have
probably been no hope for the war refugees that didn't have the option
to stayor go. His why to live was not to save himself, but to save others.
In the
Novel Frankl describes the human person as a meaning maker, who has the
last
human freedom namely to choose one attitude in a given set of
circumstances. In
1950, he moved from his Diocese in Kaying China, to a political prison
in Canton
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200, miles away. At every stop along the way he was put on public
display and
humiliated. His attitude during these stops was not to give and let the
humiliation make get to him, but to use it as a stepping stone to fight
harder,
he did the inevitable he used the humiliation to make him better.
In his life he examplified many of the things Frankl wrote
about, but he
also depicted many of the quotes in the hallway of Kellenberg Memorial
High
School. There is one quote that stood out to me more than any of the
quotes on
the wall it is.
COURAGE
Don't follow where the path may lead go instead where there is
no path
and leave a trail". When Bishop was young he developed his own
idealism. While
a student in Cathedral college in New York he took an interest in theChristian
Foreign Mission Society, this society was new and had few members. At
the age
of 20, he became the first seminarian of the Maryknoll Missionaries to
go abroad.
In time, many followed and the missionaries began a movement to
Christianize
foreign lands. Bishop Ford is consider the pioneer of this movement.
Just like
the quote said, he led the path..and many followed. Bishop Ford died
at the
mercy of those who despised him, with-out any comfort or support. His
death was
martyrdom it's truest sense, despite the isolation and horror he held
to his
beliefs.
Works Cited
Funk & Wagnalls. Microsoft Encarta: Bishop Ford. New York: Houghton
Mifflin
Comp, 1994.
Welk, Donald. Asian Missionaries. Minnesota: Patch Publishing,
1981.