The Canonical Old Roman Catholic Clerical Directory

The Most Reverend Edward James Ford, T.O.R., S.T.D.
Titular Archbishop of Amida
Regionary bishop of Nova Terra
Primate, North American Old Roman Catholic Church

Rector, St Francis Seminary
Pastor, Blessed Sacrament Church, Sanford, Maine
Director of the Prince of Peace Christian School

Biography

Archbishop Ford was born in the City of Boston, Massachusetts on the thirteenth day of May in the year 1952, the son of the late James E. and Bernardine R. Ford. He is the eldest of three children; he is the brother of Paul R. Ford of Boston and the late Ruth Ann Ford.

He was baptized at the Gate of Heaven Roman Catholic Church in South Boston on May 26, 1952, thirteen days after birth; he received his First Holy Communion in Saint Brigid’s Church on May 30, 1960 and subsequently he received the Sacrament of Confirmation on April 14, 1966 also at Saint Brigid’s Church.

He grew up in the section of the city known as South Boston and was a communicant member of Saint Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church, having attended the Nazareth School, the parish’s parochial school which was conducted by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth whose Mother House is located at Nazareth, Kentucky from whom he received his elementary school education. He served as an Altar Boy, sang in the choir, later serving as an usher and a member of the Holy Name Society at Saint Brigid’s Church, where he also later taught in the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine program for younger children from the public schools.

In 1970 he graduated from the Christopher Columbus Central Catholic High School for Boys, located in Boston’s historic North End, which was conducted by the Franciscan Friars Minor of the Immaculate Conception Province.

During his high school years he volunteered at a program serving meals to the homeless, working alongside of two future well-known humanitarians of Boston: Paul Sullivan, founder of The Pine Street Inn a shelter program for homeless men; and Kip Tiernan, founder of Rosie’s Place, a homeless shelter for women. He also taught a number of Hispanic youngsters who had come to Boston from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, how to speak, read and write English, in a literacy program that later became known as the “Dos Culturas” Program in Boston. Several years later he again worked with this program serving as the Summer Activities Director.

While still in high school he began what would ultimately become for him an eight year commitment of working with emotionally disturbed, abused, abandoned and neglected children resident at the Nazareth Child Care Center in Boston. His work there would eventually develop in later years into more extensive work with “at risk” youth throughout the city in various programs, settings and modalities, also encompassing youth suffering from mental health issues, homelessness, parental neglect and abuse, as well as criminal and delinquency issues, over the next forty years.

He entered the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular in August of 1970 at Mount Assisi Monastery in Loretto, Pennsylvania and began his studies for the Sacred Priesthood there, attending classes at Saint Francis College. Returning to Boston he entered the Franciscan Friars novitiate there, receiving the religious name of Dismas (though he continued to retain and use his Baptismal name) and made his simple profession of vows on April 20, 1972. Three years later he made his solemn profession for life as a Franciscan Friar, having entered the Old Roman Catholic Church earlier that year.

During his early years, as a Franciscan Friar, Frater Edward served as a local advocate for many of the “at risk” youth he was working with, advocating for them in the courts, with probation officers and with various state programs and social service agencies. He served on numerous local community and state committees and worked with many state and local agencies throughout his many years of dedicated service. He was extensively involved in community work with inner-city youth and struggling families, organizing activities for the youth and programs to address the needs of the community concerning housing, nutrition, health and social services, teaching such things such as ways of stretching a budget for families on limited incomes and seeking donations from stores and individuals to assist the needy in their plight. He continued his teaching activities in the schools and religious education programs of the city and organized “after-school” and evening recreational/educational programs for the youth throughout the area, bringing together youngsters from different racial, ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds and neighborhoods and helping them to see in each other genuine friends and an acceptance of those who differed from their own background all the while fostering a sense of “oneness” that they would not have experienced if not for those opportunities he provided for them. He served as a counselor and “father-figure” for many of those youth whose own fathers had either abandoned them or who were emotionally or physically absent.

During the intense racial busing crisis in Boston during the 1970’s, when school buses and their occupants were often subjected to acts of violence and intimidation, Frater Edward, together with many other clergy in the Boston area, accompanied those buses and served as escorts to protect the children from any acts of violence while entering or leaving the schools and thus took up a position outside the school doors to ensure the safe passage of these children into and out of their schools and buses. He also took an active role in attempting to defuse some of the racial strife rampant in certain Boston neighborhoods between Black and Hispanic groups as well as the Hispanic and Anglo speaking communities of the Boston neighborhoods of the South End and of South Boston, neighborhoods where he had been working extensively with each of these groups.

During these years Frater Edward continued his theological studies for the Priesthood, through Saint Francis Seminary, then headquartered in New York, and was placed under the aegis of Bishop Burns. He was assigned to Father Mark MacNamara as his local Mentor and continued his studies, eventually earning degrees in Sacred Theology and Canon Law. During these seminary years, Frater Edward was assigned to several local parishes where he assisted the clergy in the liturgical services, taught in the religious education programs of those churches, organized various parochial youth programs of outreach and activities and leading numerous youth retreats. While he was still “de familia” in the Friary at Boston and continued serving in the local parishes there, he also was missioned to and traveled to Middletown, Rhode Island where he was instrumental in helping to establish a new parish dedicated to the traditional forms of Catholic doctrine and worship in the area of greater Portsmouth, Rhode Island serving the regions of Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut

On May 24, 1975 at Marsh Chapel, on the campus of Boston University, he was ordained to the Diaconate, having previously received the First Canonical Tonsure and the Minor Orders of Ostiariate, Lectorate, Exorcistate, Acolythate and the Subdiaconate.

By mandate of the bishop, Frater Edward organized Saint Raphael’s Parish in Boston and served there as Deacon-in-Charge until his ordination to the Sacred Priesthood by Bishop James Edward Burns in Boston on October 22, 1977, at which time he was also named as the pastor of the same parish. In the ensuing years, in addition to his own parish of Saint Raphael in Boston, Father Edward traveled throughout the New England area, saying Mass, organizing Mass Stations and Missions in various locations, such as: Casco, Raymond, Naples, Portland and Orono in Maine; Merrimack and Manchester in New Hampshire; Boston, Amherst, Worcester, Fall River, Brockton and Provincetown in Massachusetts; Providence and Charlestown in Rhode Island; Hartford and New Haven in Connecticut. He also traveled to various cities in New York and New Jersey on behalf of the mission work of the Old Roman Catholic Church and together with clergy from other parts of the country brought numerous scattered Old Roman Catholic communities in New York, New Jersey, California, Washington, Virginia, North Carolina and Canada together within the framework of the North American Old Roman Catholic Church.

On May 30, 1978, with special dispensations being granted, Father Edward was consecrated as a Bishop and was given the title of Titular Archbishop of Amida and soon thereafter was appointed as the first Bishop of New England, due to the rapidly advancing illness of Bishop Burns, who, suffering from the debilitating effects of diabetes, was going blind, had already lost one leg, was in danger of losing his remaining leg, and thus was unable to continue his ministry as before. Archbishop Ford now worked vigorously to extend and expand the work of the Old Roman Catholic Church. Archbishop Ford was appointed by the then Primate, the late Archbishop James H Rogers as the chairman of the Canon Law Committee, and of the Clergy Insurance and Pension Committee. He served on many other committees for the church and also served as both an Advocate and later as a Synodal Judge in the Primatial Curia and Courts of the Church. He was instrumental in re-organizing the program of studies for Saint Francis Seminary and has authored numerous booklets, pamphlets, brochures and articles for use in the Church and is also the author/compiler of the Church’s Catechism: Our Catholic Faith and Practice.

For several years in the early 1980’s, at the request of the late Archbishop Rogers, and with permission granted by him, Archbishop Ford re-located his residence to Virginia in order to assist with and to oversee the development of the work and ministry of the Old Roman Catholic Church in both Virginia and North Carolina. Through his efforts and the efforts of several other clergy and religious, missions were established at Norfolk and Newport News in Virginia, and at Hertford, Edenton and Lumberton in North Carolina. An attempt to revive a former Old Roman Catholic Church in nearby Fayetteville, North Carolina which had been closed in the early 1960’s was not as successful, though the Mission of the Holy Cross in Lumberton was close by enough to accommodate the spiritual needs of the faithful in Fayetteville.

Throughout his many years as a Franciscan Friar, Archbishop Ford has served in various capacities within the Order: local Guardian (superior); Provincial Definitor (councilor); Master of Novices, Censor Librorum and most recently as Minister Provincial. He has ministered in the parochial ministry, chaplaincies, and education apostolate at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels.

APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION

1	1541 March 16th ✠Scipione, Cardinal Rebiba. Auxiliary Bishop, Chieti
2	1566 March 12th ✠Giulio Antonio, Cardinal Santorio, Archbishop, Santa Severina
3	1586 September 7th ✠Girolamo, Cardinal Berneri OP, Bishop, Albano
4	1604 April 4th ✠Galeazzo Santivale, Archbishop, Bari
5	1621 May 2nd ✠Ludovico, Cardinal Ludovisi, Camerlengo
6	1622 June 12th ✠Luigi Cardinal Caetani, Tit. Patriarch of Antioch
7	1630 October 6th ✠Giovanni Battista Scannaroli, Bishop, Tyre and Sidon
8	1665 October 24th ✠Antonio, Cardinal Barberini, Archbishop, Reims
9	1668 November 12th ✠Charles Maurice Le Tellier, Archbishop, Reims
10	1670 September 21st ✠Jacques-Benigne Bossuet, Bishop, Meaux
11	1693 October 24th ✠Jacques Goyon de Matignon, Bishop, Condom
12	1719 February 12th ✠Dominique Marie Varlet, Bishop, Ascalon
13	1739 October 17th ✠Petrus Johannes Meindaarts, Archbishop, Utrecht
14	1745 July 11th ✠Johannes van Stiphout, Bishop, Haarlem
15	1763 February 7th ✠Gualtherus van Niewenhuisen, Archbishop, Utrecht
16	1778 June 21st ✠Johannes Adrian Broekman, Bishop, Haarlem
17	1797 July 5th ✠Johannes Jacobus van Rhijn, Archbishop, Utrecht
18	1805 November 7th ✠Gilbertus Cornelius de Jong, Bishop, Deventer
19	1814 April 24th ✠Willibrordus van Os, Archbishop, Utrecht
20	1819 April 12th ✠Johannes Bon, Bishop, Haarlem
21	1825 June 14th ✠Johannes van Santen, Archbishop, Utrecht
22	1853 July 17th ✠Hermanus Heijkamp, Bishop, Deventer
23	1873 August 11th ✠Gaspard Johannes Rinkel, Bishop, Haarlem
24	1892 May 11th ✠Gerardus Gul, Archbishop, Utrecht
25	1908 April 28th ✠Arnold Harris Mathew, Archbishop, London

1	1908 April 28th ✠Arnold Harris Mathew, Archbishop, London
2	1912 June 29th ✠Rudolphe de Landes Berges, Bishop, Scotland
3	1916 October 4th ✠Carmel Henry Carfora, Archbishop, Chicago
4	1942 July 30th ✠Hubert Augustus Rogers, Archbishop, New York
5	1967 January 21st ✠James Edward Burns, Staten Island
6	1978 May 30th ✠Edward James Ford, Nova Terra
	Prime Consecrator of…
	1984 September 8th ✠Edmund Floyd Leeman, T.O.R. Bishop, New Jersey (RIP)
	1985 May 11th ✠Beldon Edward Gannon as the Missionary Bishop for New York State (RIP)
	1986 June 14 ✠Herve Lionel Quessy as the Bishop of the Diocese of French Canada (later the 5th Primate of the NAORCC; RIP).
	1992 October 3rd ✠Wayne Robert Matthew Price as Vicar Apostolic of Niagara Falls (inactive).
	2011 October 15th ✠Irvin Nicholas Plant (RIP)
	2021 August 14th ✠Waldemar Kamil Maj
	2021 September 8th ✠John Finney
	2021 September 29th ✠Miguel Ángel Sánchez Carlos

Blazon of Arms
Arms impaled. In the sinister: quarterly Argent and Or a cross throughout Azure cantoned of four Greek crosses potent Gules (NAORCC); overall on an escutcheon in pretense Azure fimbriated Argent a barrulet wavy Argent between in chief a Greek cross fleury and in base a mullet of six points both Or.(Diocese of New England)
In the dexter Argent a Latin cross throughout Azure charged on the upper arm and the two arms to dexter and sinister with an escallop shell and on the lower arm with a mullet of six points all Or; overall on an inescutcheon per fess Azure and Or in chief the Franciscan conformities Proper and in base three nails disposed in a pile inverted surmounted by a crown of thorns all Sable; on a chief Gules a sword point downward Argent with the pommel and hilt Or and a royal sceptre Argent topped by a jewel Or in saltire enfiled by an ancient crown Or between two crescents to dexter and sinister Argent. (Abp. Ford)
The shield is ensigned with a bishop’s mitre Or and Argent and a crozier and a patriarchal cross placed behind the shield palewise both Or. Above this is a galero with cords 30 tassels disposed on either side of the shield in five rows of one, two, three, four and five all Vert.
On a scroll below the shield is the motto: Lucrum Christi Mihi.