Educated at St. Augustine Seminary (Bay St. Louis), Joseph was ordained a priest for the Society of the Divine Word on October 7, 1950.
The principal co-consecrators were Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Boland of Newark and Auxiliary Bishop Harold Perry of New Orleans.
[1][2] Bishop Joseph Abel Francis was an outspoken Civil Rights Leader and was one of the first in the Catholic church to openly speak out against racism.
The other was his founding of Verbum Dei High School in the Watts section of Los Angeles,[4] a predominantly African American community.
[6] Seton Hall University, Monsignor Noe Field Archives & Special Collections Center, Joseph A. Francis papers, Identifier # ADN 0003-011 This article about an American Catholic bishop or archbishop is a stub.