7/29/2019 A Martyrs Victory in a Spiritual Sense

1/2

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

7/29/2019 A Martyrs Victory in a Spiritual Sense

2/2

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.