This is a photograph of Bishop Francis Xavier Ford M.M. [center] with Maryknoll Sisters after an annual retreat. They are shown here in front of the new convent at Meichou [Kaying City].; Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bishop Ford was the first student to enter the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 5, 1917 and the following year he accompanied Fathers Price, Meyer and James E. Walsh to China. They began working in Yeungkong and the Kongmoon territory of South China. In 1925, Fr. Ford was assigned to the Kaying diocese. Ten years later, in 1935, Bishop James Anthony Walsh, founder of Maryknoll, consecrated Msgr. Francis Ford as the first Bishop of Kaying. He remained in China throughout ...