Fr. Kennelly, Maryknoll Sisters and orphans in Luoding, China, 1934

This is a photograph of "Father Kennelly, the Maryknoll Sisters, and the orphans. The Sister [left to right] are Sisters Colombiere, Moira, Richard, and Frances. The young lady standing on the right of Sr. Colombiere is Miss Philomena Chan - she helps the Sisters to teach school. The woman on the left of Sr. Frances is Miss Grace Ng - she assists the Sisters in taking care of the orphanage. There are four blind orphans in this group. The orphans are taught how to read, write, draw, sing church music, make cloth shoes, make clothes and to mend clothes. In their spare time the orphans help to wash and iron the clothes and take care of the garden. The orphans sing the various parts of the High Mass very well and the Benediction hymns are rendered in great style. The Divine Praises after Benediction are sung in Chinese. At present, the Loting [now Luoding] orphanage houses about forty orphans. Last year - from January to January - the orphanage received twelve hundred and seventy three [1273] babies. Very few babies live on account of the former hardships of exposure and hunger and disease."; Born in New York, Fr. Kennelly came to Maryknoll in 1916 and was hoping to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, a Jesuit, who served many years in Shanghai. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1926 and left for Kongmoon, China, the same year. He began work in the Loting Orphanage and in 1936 considered it a great honor to bring the body of Maryknoll co-founder Rev. Thomas F. Price back to Maryknoll. He returned to Kongmoon in 1937 as Society Superior of that mission and held the role until 1948. The Loting Mission was often bombed or attacked by bandits. His work ended in 1951 in Kongmoon when he was arrested, interrogated and expelled to Hong Kong. In 1951 he started another 25 year career missioned in Hawaii