The other was Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, tortured and martyred in 1952 in a Chinese Communist prison. Another Maryknoll Bishop that was almost martyred was James Edward Walsh. Arrested by the Communists in China in 1958, he spent twelve years in solitary confinement before being released in 1970. He famously said when his superiors in Maryknoll inquired about his safety, “To put up with a little inconvenience at my age is nothing. Besides, I am sick and tired of being pushed around on account of my religion.” That was the early Maryknollers’ spirit. Bishop Walsh died in 1981 at Maryknoll.
CNA, Kevin J. Jones: Bishop Patrick James Byrne was born in the United States, but he died on a forced march in the harsh Korean snows under the watch of communist soldiers. Read the rest here.
