February 21: An American Martyr

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is February 21st, and our story is An American Martyr. For almost 500 years, the world sent priests to America. In the early part of the 20th century, however, America began sending priests to the world.

One of the first of those priests was Bishop Francis Xavier Ford. Brooklyn born and raised, Ford was the first man to enroll in the Maryknoll Seminary, founded in 1912, to support the work of the also newly founded Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America.

Five years later, Ford became the first Maryknoll Seminarian to graduate, and was ordained to the priesthood on December 5, 1917. Early the following year, Father Ford headed to China, arriving in October 1918 with three other Maryknoll missionaries, including Maryknoll co-founder Father Thomas Frederick Price.

Ford then proceeded to the southern province of Canton, now Guangdong, where he established two Catholic missions. One in the north, and one in the south. Consecrated a bishop in 1935, Ford's evangelization efforts included building schools and churches, establishing the first convent of Maryknoll sisters in the region, and cultivating priestly vocations among the native Chinese.

Within 20 years, the number of Chinese Catholics in the region had grown from fewer than 9,000 to more than 20,000. Throughout World War II, Ford provided shelter and food to countless refugees. As well as to Allied and Chinese troops combating the occupying Japanese.

All that was forgotten, however, when the Communists came to power. In 1950, Mao's men put Ford and his secretary, Sister Joan Marie Ryan, under house arrest. The following spring, soldiers took Ford from his home and marched him through the villages where he'd served, organizing mobs to torture and beat him along the way.

They finally led Ford back to a prison in Guangdong, where he died on February 21, 1952. Bishop Ford's life reminds us that faith often calls us to risk comfort, safety, and even life itself. True missionary zeal is measured not by recognition, but by the selfless love poured into the service of others.

Bishop Ford's Witness challenges us to live boldly in faith, to serve without counting the cost, and to trust that God's work is larger than our own safety or recognition. Offer a prayer today for missionaries around the world, and consider one way you can serve others selflessly, whether in your community or through prayerful support of global missions.

Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, February 22nd, for another story of faith and courage in America.