n the fall of 1984, Msgr. John Vesey was a Maryknoll missionary working with the indigenous people of southwestern Guatemala, but he became deathly ill with pneumonia. While bedridden, he slipped in and out of consciousness.
In moments of lucidity he saw, standing over him, Sister Alba Estela Orellana and her fellow Carmelite nuns. The Guatemalan sisters helped him minister to the Tz’utujil people of Santiago Atitlán. But Msgr.
On the 72nd anniversary of his death in a Chinese prison camp, Bishop Francis X. Ford was remembered as a “faith-filled preacher of the Gospel” and an example to all of how to live a Christian life.
About 3,000 speakers of Chinese languages attend Sunday Mass in the Diocese of Brooklyn. However, priests who speak Mandarin and Cantonese say they need help — specifically, more bilingual clergy and volunteers to help serve this growing community.
Msgr. John Vesey is quick to laugh with everyone, but prompt to cry with the sick and suffering. Just ask the members of St. Michael’s Parish in Flushing, Queens, where he was pastor during the grim early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. They honored him recently with a special Mass.
Asian-cuisine restaurants and other businesses in downtown Flushing are clawing back from a year-long grip of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Leaders say an accelerated recovery depends on more vaccinations against the coronavirus and enhanced police security to deter the possibility of anti-Asian hate crimes.
The cause for canonization for Bishop Francis Xavier Ford (1892-1952) is getting a helping hand from the Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, M.M. Guild, which is is planning to intensify its efforts.
