History of Free the Fathers
Founded in 1983 by John M. Davies, the organization has grown from a one-man-operation in the basement of the Davies' Signal Mountain, Tennessee home to an office in Atlanta with more than 25,000 activist members.
The group's first project in 1983 was a campaign on behalf of Shanghai Bishop Ignatius Kung who had been jailed for 33 years. This project sent 500,000 postcards to the Chinese government demanding freedom for Bishop Kung.
As a result of these efforts, Bishop Kung was released in January, 1988, when he came to the United States. He lived in Connecticut until his death in 2000. Since then, Free The Fathers has continued to work for the freedom of hundreds of other priests who continue to suffer and die for their faith.
In 1989, the Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation of St. Louis presented Davies with its Katie Gruss Memorial Award in recognition of his work with Free The Fathers. That same year, Davies traveled to Rome as a guest of Cardinal Kung, and Free The Fathers received an Apostolic Blessing from His Holiness, John Paul II.
Davies has testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is regularly interviewed by both major wire services, daily newspapers, and radio and television stations. He has been profiled in Columbia, national magazine of the Knights of Columbus.
Davies is a graduate of the University of Virginia, and holds a Master's in Business Administration from Wake Forest University.
Recently, Free The Fathers has moved its international headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia in order to take advantage of greater access to international media outlets and governmental offices.
In 2002, Free The Fathers has been focusing on exposing the truth behind the Chinese government's public relations campaign asserting that religious freedom exists in China.