Abstract

La Sagrada Familia Church is located on Detroit Road in Cleveland, Ohio. This church is the result of the merging of the communities of San Juan Bautista Church (St. John the Baptist) and Capilla Cristo Rey (Christ King Chapel). Bishop Anthony Pilla chose the name, La Sagrada Familia, as a representation of the unity of both parishes. The name also represents the unity of the diverse Hispanic ethnicity that were present in both parishes. In this interview, Deacon Rev. Mr. Frederick Simon details the history of the Hispanic community's attempt to join a few different parishes starting in 1966 at St. Patrick's Church on Bridge Avenue and also Blessed Sacrament and St. Procop. Construction of La Sagrada Familia Church was completed in 1988. The later part of the interview details the services provided by the church and the diversity of the Hispanic population within this parish.

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Interviewee

Simon, Frederick (interviewee); Simon, Millie (interviewee)

Interviewer

Valore, Kenneth (interviewer)

Project

Sacred Landmarks

Date

8-12-2011

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

57 minutes

Transcript

Ken Valore [00:00:01] Okay. My name is Ken Valore. I’m joined by Fred-

Frederick Simon [00:00:05] Frederick Simon. 

Millie Simon [00:00:08] And Millie, his wife.

Ken Valore [00:00:09] -to conduct an interview for the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities to document the history of the La Sagrada.

Frederick Simon [00:00:17] La Sagrada Familia. Yeah, the Holy Family. In English. Yes.

Ken Valore [00:00:21] The interview is being held at the church located at 7719 Detroit Road. Would everybody- Would you please state your name and your affiliation with the congregation?

Frederick Simon [00:00:36] Okay. I’m Frederick Simon. I’m a deacon here at the Church Sagrada Familia. I’ve been a deacon for 30 years in the Catholic Church of Cleveland.

Millie Simon [00:00:45] And I’m Millie Simon, and I’ve worked in various ministries here. Music, baptism preparation.

Ken Valore [00:00:58] Okay. And how did you become part of this community?

Frederick Simon [00:01:06] Well, it began some time ago. This community- We started working with this community back in 1966, probably. I think it was at St Patrick’s Church on Bridge, on Bridge Avenue. It was mostly with the Spanish-speaking, but it was also English. We had a youth group at the time, which is about youth. Spanish, English youth group. We were there for about 10 years at- About 10 years there at St. Patrick’s Church. From there, we went on to the church on the east side. Yeah, that’s this community. Yeah. When I say this community, I mean the Hispanic community. Because at that time we had no church. We were using St. Patrick’s Church. And then we went on to the church in the east side, which was St. Francis. And they also had a bilingual kind of community there, St. Francis, with a school. Then eventually I became ordained a deacon. And then I came back to serve at a church which was affiliated with Blessed Sacrament over here. I can’t remember what Blessed Sacrament. Fulton. Fulton. That’s been my memory.

Ken Valore [00:02:21] I got married there.

Frederick Simon [00:02:22] Okay. Blessed Sacrament Church. But we were not meeting in Blessed Sacrament. We were meeting across the street at a restaurant, Ricardo’s Restaurant. Ricardo’s Restaurant, an Italian restaurant. We have the services there. But then eventually we did. They gave a space of Blessed Sacrament. So that was kind of the beginnings of what we call Cristo Rey. This is really an expression of two churches. This is Christo Rey, which was started by the bishop as a storefront church, and also San Juan Bautista, which. They had a church here at 38th.

Millie Simon [00:02:59] Street in Carol, near St. Ignatius.

Frederick Simon [00:03:03] St. Ignatius. St Ignatius High School. So there were two Hispanic churches, but we had a storefront. So our church, which is called Capilla Cristo Rey, was established in 1983. The Church of San Juan Bautista was established in 1975. So there were these two churches. They had a church, but we were renting space first at a funeral home and later on at a video store. So that’s what we did for about 14, 15 years. And we didn’t really have a place. So that was always an issue. So, like, in 1988, we tried to join with the church of St. Procop’s Church, and they denied that request. I mean, they had a survey, but they felt there would be a lot of negative response to that. So we didn’t pursue that. Now, the reason why San Juan Church was established in 1975 is they were meeting in St. Patrick’s but again, it was not a pleasant experience, let’s put it that way. Then they went out to St. Stephen’s and then in 1975, they established themselves as a church. So it’s a question of, I guess, rejection is the best way I could put it. Both that Blessed Sacrament rejected us. St. Patrick’s was not exactly embracing us. St. Procop’s denied the request. Now, it’s interesting that both Blessed Sacrament and St. Procop’s have both been closed by the bishop, which means really, if they had accepted the Hispanic community, they would still have had life and they wouldn’t have been closed. I think that’s an important issue. Okay? So then in 1988, we met with Bishop Lyke. Now, of course, he died, and we met with him to try to determine some options for Cristo Rey. Now, Cristo Rey, San Juan, Cristo Rey, had the storefront. We met with him to get some options for some new space. Either we buy, we rent, or we build because we didn’t have a place. So like I said, I gave you this list of things here. 1990, a letter was sent by Cristo Rey to the city of Cleveland requesting help to find a lot for a new church building. So the issue in this history is that San Juan was perfectly comfortable in their little church, but we had no place to go. So basically we were looking for a lot. So then in 1990, I sent a letter to a buddy of mine in city hall. He was the head of. Joe Smith was head of community. Forget his title. Anyway, forget his title. But anyway, he had a big job there, and I helped ask for see if we could find a lot for a new church building. And also in 1990, on the Feast of Guadalupe, December 12, 1990, a letter was sent by the Cristo Rey staff to Bishop Pillar indicating that we were interested in building a new church facility. So those were the beginnings of the desire for a new church. We needed one. We were looking for one, and we sent a letter on to Bishop Pillar.

Ken Valore [00:06:15] Good question. Why were there two different groups?

Frederick Simon [00:06:20] Well, the San Juan group had already been established, and then the pastor from St. Michael’s happened to be working in the Blessed Sacrament area with a nun, and they saw there was a lot of Hispanic there that were not having services, that didn’t have a need. Now, it turns out that a lot of those people probably also were not like what you would call church people. So they really didn’t identify with the church. So it was kind of an evangelization. So Father Dennis. What was his name again? Father. Father Dennis o’ Grady. And nun. I don’t remember the nuns. 

Millie Simon [00:06:56] But there was also Father - from St. Josephat’s - was involved with that, too. Recall that?

Frederick Simon [00:07:03] Not till later he wasn’t. I know who you mean. He was the head of the Hispanic office. Yes, but those two were out, and they asked that. And that’s how they started the church and the restaurant with the idea of joining with Blessed Sacraments. It was kind of a grassroots type of effort to get people who had no church identification to get into a church.

Millie Simon [00:07:21] Besides, the building of San Juan was very small.

Frederick Simon [00:07:24] Yeah, it’s a small building.

Millie Simon [00:07:26] So they really couldn’t accommodate all of the Hispanics.

Frederick Simon [00:07:30] So San Juan had their church. They were established in 1975. We had. Our storefront first was a funeral house, then we had a video shop all on Clark Avenue. And basically, we were drawing people who were not nominal church people. They were, you know, they were not really what you would call, you know. So it was an outreach. It was kind of an outreach, and I really enjoyed it a lot. In fact, our first priest actually was a missionary from Peru. He went on to a blessed. He’s not from South America, but he was from the Trinitarian. No. Precious Blood.

Millie Simon [00:08:09] Oh, was he?

Frederick Simon [00:08:10] Yeah, he was Precious Blood, yeah.

Millie Simon [00:08:13] James Bender.

Frederick Simon [00:08:14] James Bender. So he had a missionary kind of a spirit. He was excellent. He even played a guitar, played love songs, you know, Spanish love songs. He was a wonderful priest. He was just marvelous. So he drew a lot of people, and we did. So the community grew, and she took care of the music. In fact, one of the big things that she was able to do was to get people who were good musicians but were not playing for the church as such. And one time we needed musicians, so we said, why don’t you just play for us for a month? And they played for a month, and they stayed on, and they’re still active in the church. So the music drew them into the church. So that was what happened there. So we were communicating with the diocese to Bishop Pilla to get them to discuss the new church building. And that was back in 1990. And then what the bishop’s response was to realize he had three churches at the time that he was concerned about. He had San Juan Bautista, which I told you about. Capilla Cristo Rey. And also St. Michael’s had a very strong outreach to the Hispanics.

Ken Valore [00:09:17] Where is St. Michael?

Millie Simon [00:09:19] Scranton.

Frederick Simon [00:09:19] Scranton.

Ken Valore [00:09:20] Okay.

Frederick Simon [00:09:21] And Clark.

Ken Valore [00:09:22] Okay.

Frederick Simon [00:09:23] Yeah. And so. And I think, at least I know that us, San Juan Bautista and Capilla Cristo Rey. We were under support by the diocese. What do they call that again, when you’re still supported?

Millie Simon [00:09:35] We’re subsidized.

Frederick Simon [00:09:36] We were being subsidized by the diocese. I don’t know about St. Michael’s if they were subsidized or not, but he put us in the same package in 1991 and began what I would call a task force to discuss some sort of five year plan and perhaps also to get us off subsidy. So that started in 1991. Then of course, we made a report in 1991 to the bishop. And what we did was to kind of confirmed what Bishop Pilla wanted in a sense, anyway. We suggested that there be a Hispanic center. Center for Hispanics. A place that all Hispanics could call their own.

Millie Simon [00:10:22] Non-territorial.

Frederick Simon [00:10:23] Non-territorial. Yeah, this is non-territorial. And so what happened with that? That was the task force. And then, because the task force, then from the task force there was developed a coordinating committee of the three churches to discuss our needs and discuss the possibility of new church in the Future. That was September 1991. We had a national figure. Her name was Sister Domingo Zapata, who was a national figure. And she came in and she’s very good. She came in to facilitate an Hispanic ministry what would be best for us. So we met with them starting in 1991. And in 1993, as we were going through these discussions, Bishop Pilla himself expressed his desire for a central location for Hispanics. So at that point, the bishop was already like on board for sure that he wanted to have us as center.

Millie Simon [00:11:16] He was very good with us because he saw that we were trying to share churches that were established just with Hispanic ministry and how they rejected us. And he said that his own background, when his parents came from Italy and they had to have their masses in the basement, he understood that whole thing. And so he was very good with us. He was very supportive. He called us his godfather. And so it’s because of Bishop Pilla that we have this building.

Frederick Simon [00:11:51] But we did ask him if he wanted to be our godfather. In Hispanic culture there is a thing called the godfather, padrino. And it’s not just a religious sponsorship that they give, you know, for the church, but like the padrino in Puerto Rico also will get you a job, will make contacts for you. If you get a good padrino in the political circles, you’ll get into, you know, it has a very extensive meaning. It has a very broad meaning. So when we asked Bishop Pilla, I think I asked him, in fact he understood exactly what we’re talking about. And he said, yes, I’ll be your godfather. Provided that we would do our part. I think he said, provided there was that proviso. Provided you do your part. And we said we would do our part.

Millie Simon [00:12:41] We did, you know, we made pledges. We came out of this building without having a mortgage. After we built this building.

Frederick Simon [00:12:49] Yeah, so we built this. Yeah, we don’t have a mortgage. Right. And that was a big surprise because up to that point the Hispanics and the Cleveland church were considered almost like high second class citizens. That’s why we had such difficulties. And we were not considered to be responsible members because we didn’t have a lot of money. And it was not thought that we could actually put together the resources to build a church. You know, there was that kind of, that bias, you know, but I guess when people need to make sacrifices, they make sacrifices, they make pledges. And that’s what happened. So like, so like in 19, that same year, Bishop Pilla then sent a letter to this coordinating committee saying, proposing a general area for this new building. So he was on board with the idea that one way to get, one way for us also to make best use of the money that we were using from the diocese is basically to put all our resources together. That was kind of the idea.

Millie Simon [00:13:49] Cristo Rey came into this with a hundred thousand dollar donation because we had a parking lot next to us and we sold that to, I think it was the drugstore. And so we came with monies, so we didn’t come empty handed. And you know, so. So we did our part.

Frederick Simon [00:14:12] Yeah, somebody gave us that lot and then we sold the lot.

Millie Simon [00:14:15] Of course.

Frederick Simon [00:14:16] I mean, but then they sold. Yeah. So we. So it was kind of God sent. It was God sent providential at St. How does church they were able to sell their church from? I think it wasn’t a lot of money. $400,000 I think it was. We had 100,000. So there was already 500,000. And we had pledges. And then what the bishop did, he got someone from Catholic Charities, a professional, to help us with the fundraising. So the bishop got us to that. The bishop got us this land. This land was under the Catholic Charities. It belongs to the church, but it was under Catholic Charities. So the bishop got the Catholic Charities chairman to say, yes, we’ll provide this lot. So this was free, basically, church property. Although we did look for other lots. We went to many, many lots, and this was only one of many. And we finally decided, well, if it’s a gift and if it’s in the right area, which it was, then what’s. You know, don’t. So we. Then we took this gift. So this was a gift to the bishop and also the bishop. The Bishop Pilla was extremely supportive, especially at a time when a lot of priests said, why build another church? There’s so many vacant churches. But it turns out we made the attempt to join with churches, and we had no success. They didn’t know what to do with Hispanic speaking. Okay, so then. But in 1994, as part of this coordinating committee that we were on, we had the three churches. We had St. Michael, San Juan Bautista and Cristo Rey Capilla Cristo Rey. And this coordinating committee. But then St. Michael withdrew because they saw they were going toward a new building, and they felt that wasn’t their agenda. They just had their- They had their building and they had a good program, so they withdrew. Okay, so 1994 is when we- After an extensive search for a lot, like I said, a serious consideration was given to this lot that we’re on now, which is right next to St. Augustine Matada[?]. It’s about an acre, a little bit more than an acre. And this was offered to us as a gift. It was under the responsibility of Catholic Charities. And then finally, in 1994, requests for proposals were sent out for the planning design of a new church building here. And that was after 13 proposals were received from architects. We interviewed many, many architects. Some of them were Catholic. Most of them were Catholic. But we did interview a Jewish, and they had some good ideas, actually. But we got this one because of the cost and because of his experience. Basically, that was the thing. He had done a lot of things with the parish, and he knew. Exactly. And the cost was really super. So Millie and I, we had our own little committee, and we interviewed them. And since I’m an engineer by trade, anyway, so I did a lot of contract work. So I knew perhaps how to judge the merits and all this, you know, so we did that. We went through that whole procedure and we finally picked the one proposal and Zarzycki-Malik, I guess eventually it was Malik. And then we had initial design. And this was 1994. We had initial design at 25,000 square feet. But then I think it was Bishop Father Wright in the diocese was in charge of that. Said, wow, that’s a little big. It’s a little expensive. Expensive. So we’ll cut it back to 20,000 square feet. You got to remember that the final cost to this church with the architect, cost, construction, everything was less than $2 million. That’s amazing. Actually, it was like $1.82 million.

Millie Simon [00:17:52] Some renovations to churches are over there.

Frederick Simon [00:17:55] I’ve seen renovations that are two and a half million, three million. So the whole building was. So that was really a great. I mean, it was a great price. So in 95, we had fundraising beginning and many pledges by the people, and the fundraising was done by the two churches again. San Batista, Cristo Rey. In 1996, the name of Sagrada Familia was announced by Bishop Pilla, where he went through a discernment process to give it a new name. Now, the reason why he went Sagrada Familia Holy Family, San Juan Batista, they have that. But San Juan Bautista is the patron saint for Puerto Rico. And we wanted to attract all Hispanics, not just Puerto Ricans. At the initial history of this church in Cleveland was mostly Puerto Rican, but we have a tremendous influence from Central America now Mexico, Central America, of migrants, as you know. And so this church had to draw them, and it also had to have a face that they could see be a Spanish church. That’s why you see this Spanish mission kind of a face. And that draws the Hispanics. And that’s exactly what is happening. The Puerto Rican population has diminished percentage wise, and we have a lot more Mexicans, Central Americans, Central Americans, South Americans. So it’s no longer like a Puerto Rican church as such, which it was at the beginning of the history, back in the 70s and the 60s. No, it’s definitely a Latin church. Latin American church includes the Caribbean, includes South America, Central America. So it has a wide scope. If you look at the church itself, we have a picture of Our lady, lady of Guadalupe art. We have the patron saint for Peru, patron saint for Puerto Rico, and those are those three we have. We want to be inclusive so as. As people build up their populations, they want their own identity to be expressed in the church. And we do have, and that’s happening.

Millie Simon [00:19:56] Celebrations of such, you know, the Dominicans have their celebrations, the Mexicans have their celebrations, Puerto Ricans have their celebrations, Peruvians have theirs, you know, so it’s-

Frederick Simon [00:20:06] So even though it’s all Hispanic, there are still cultural expressions.

Ken Valore [00:20:11] They all get along.

Frederick Simon [00:20:13] They do. No, we get along very well. There’s always some competition. The competition being I can do it better than you. Always that. Always that little thing. I can do mine. They don’t say it, but you can just sense it.

Millie Simon [00:20:26] You know what? That was, I think at the beginning, but we’ve had our growing pains and I think.

Frederick Simon [00:20:30] Yeah, but there’s always. There’s always that. No, there’s always. Because it’s a pride. I can express my culture, my beliefs, you know, my cultural beliefs. There’s always a little pride, I think. But it’s a good thing. I mean it’s a motivating thing. I’ve never seen it a bad thing. It motivates them to let them and it also puts them, it gives them a sense of expression. Now how that follows with the younger people, that’s another story. You know what I mean?

Millie Simon [00:21:04] They’re Americans first.

Ken Valore [00:21:05] Right.

Frederick Simon [00:21:06] So that’s a little different. But the elder, they keep that connection with their mother country that way. And I think that that’s important. It really is important.

Millie Simon [00:21:16] But we’ve learned how to accept everybody. We really do.

Frederick Simon [00:21:19] Well, the bishop has- [crosstalk] Part of that is the bishop. Bishop has insisted we have an English-speaking Mass. We have now on here. It took a while for us to-

Millie Simon [00:21:26] 10 o’clock.

Frederick Simon [00:21:27] 10 o’ lock is the English mass, so. And that’s mainly because a lot of the youth and those- Well, that’s one reason the youth prefer English. And also we have other people in the community that would want to come to the church.

Millie Simon [00:21:42] So Hispanics who are married to non-Hispanics.

Frederick Simon [00:21:46] Oh yeah, that’s a lot of that. That’s right. A lot of non-Hispanics. Yeah. So you have that. The integration factor. So we have an English, we have two Spanish, we have- Well throughout the week is Spanish, then Saturday is Spanish, and then Sunday morning at 10 is English, and 12 is Spanish again. Yeah. So that’s kind of the mixture, that’s kind of the choice people have. So that’s how that’s worked. Let’s see. So in 1996 in September we had the groundbreaking ceremony. I don’t know if we have pictures of that. I don’t know if we do. In 1997 we have the construction proposals that were received by the architect Asei Suzuki[?] in 1997, May of 1997. Construction began in-

Millie Simon [00:22:37] April.

Frederick Simon [00:22:38] April of ’98, the first Mass. We had the first Mass, which is Good Friday. I preached at the first Mass. That was kind of nice. And also we had a procession. We had a procession from San Juan Bautista. I guess the procession was right. We had a procession come here. We liked processions walking through the streets.

Millie Simon [00:22:58] We walked from Cristo Rey too.

Frederick Simon [00:23:00] Yeah, Cristo Rey. And we met with San Juan. [crosstalk] And we met. And so it was kind of a marriage ceremony. Two churches, you know, the bigger church, San Juan and us. It was like a little marriage. And the name Sagrada Familia fits. You know, two people get married, they have a family, right? So that’s what we had. We had these two churches meeting in the street, so to speak, processing to the new church and with the new name of Sagrada Familia. And then in ’98, June of ’98, June 21, the bishop was here to give the Mass, the dedication Mass. And in your folder here, there are some particulars along there. There’s a picture of this church. There’s also information here. This is, by the way, the picture of me with the bishop at the dedication Mass. There’s also, here from the governor of the state, a little proclamation at that same time. This is from the Governor Voinovich. This here is the letter to the solicitation architects for the new church and indicating why we have the church as some of the purpose of why we wanted that new church. Now this paper here tells you something of the church. For instance, it says here that the Sagrada Familia church was designed using elements associated with the Spanish mission churches. And we worked on that by actually visiting a lot of the churches in the Southwest. We went to California when- I had made other trips. We get information from the churches. We went way back, remember there was. We actually went to the original Spanish mission churches, remember that they have. And of course, when we went there, there were no more Spanish-speaking people there. It’s all English-speaking because there weren’t any more Spanish. But it was fascinating. But we took pictures of that and we gave the architects pictures of these Spanish mission churches. We gave them pictures in magazines. We gave them a [inaudible]. Because they had to then adapt it to this area, to these needs. But if you look at it, it’s got the face. The body may not be the same, but it’s got that face, okay? The church, this church reflects current expressions of Catholic worship and also respects the practices and styles of the Hispanic community. Front of the church makes a statement to the community. It says two pathways stretch out to the community like open arms. At the front of the church, you can see that. The church is covered in stucco like sandfish. Now, the stucco with a baroque. Is that the way to pronounce that? Baroque-style entrance and round stained-glass windows. Now, the stucco was hard. We had to get. If you just put ordinary stucco on here, with the changes of temperature, it’ll just crack. It hasn’t cracked. It was a special polymer that they used with this. We found that the architects actually test it because it expands and contracts, but it hasn’t cracked since ’98. It hasn’t cracked. And so I give that to the architects. They studied that. They did a good job at that. The bell tower, that bell tower that we have, it came from the Church of San Juan Bautista, and it was made in 1878. Okay. So it came from that church. So we have still that identity from that church. And the building has a plaza. The Hispanics always like plazas in Puerto Rico. At every plaza, you’ll see a church. The plaza is the meeting area. Now, when people go to church here, they don’t leave. That’s their choice. After Mass, Yeah, they socialize. There’s food, there’s coffee. Most churches, they leave here, they don’t leave because the social part is an important expression of the. To stick around and socialize. So they don’t leave. So we have a plaza here. I want it to be bigger than that. That’s the thing we had to cut down. Father Wright wanted to cut it down, to cut the cost down. In fact, we had to do that with one day’s notice. The day before, I got a call from the head of the Hispanic office saying Father Wright wants to cut the church down. I had to call the architect down and said, we have a big meeting tomorrow. We got to cut the size down in one night, one day. They cut that size down from 25,000 to 20,000 square feet to cut the cost down. And basically it was a plaza. It was also some additional classrooms in the back. So what they did is they designed it such that if we wanted to add them later, we could break through the wall. They actually designed a structure. We can add them later if we wish. That was a way we could satisfy, see, because we paid a lot of this. But the diocese also was putting money in and resources, so they want to be sure that they weren’t going to have this great thing that they couldn’t afford, I guess.

Ken Valore [00:28:20] Where is the plaza? When I think of plazas, I think of open spaces.

Frederick Simon [00:28:25] Yeah, the plaza here is inside.

Millie Simon [00:28:27] Yes, it’s enclosed. We’ll show you later.

Frederick Simon [00:28:29] Yeah, it’s a plaza. And it’s connected then to the social hall, which is also a basketball thing. And we also eat there and have conference there, retreats there. So once you come into the building, it’s all self contained. You don’t have to go outside for anything. It’s all inside. And we got that idea from Sagrada Corazon in Lorain, Ohio. There’s a Spanish church there. They came before us and we went to there. And it turns out the pastor that was there some 10, 15 years ago is now our pastor here. And he had been Father Ra. He had been in Central America for 10 years, El Salvador. And now he’s with us. And the way he made with the people there, this came through my mind. The way he identified with the people. Even though he’s in Anglo, but he speaks Spanish. The way the people got to like him because at first they didn’t know what to do with him. He electrified. He’s also an electrician by trade. He’s a priest electrician. He electrified a whole village and he made it big time with the people there. That was kind of wonderful.

Millie Simon [00:29:35] But you know, as far as the building, you see that we are on a slope. And so we took advantage of that and we made the offices down here.

Frederick Simon [00:29:44] Down here? Yeah. We have an elevator too that goes up to people that may require. The architects are very good at keeping us with the latest requirements.

Millie Simon [00:29:52] You can enter at the lower level, but then churches.

Frederick Simon [00:29:55] Yeah, right there. So it’s all one thing. Yeah. Okay, so that’s that. I’m going to give you. The crucifix that we use upstairs is very realistic. Let’s see if I have it. It’s made by an Italian artist. Apparently there’s only three in the world of this design. One is in the Vatican and one is in Italy and a parish in Italy. So we have the third one that was donated to us.

Ken Valore [00:30:24] Was that through Bishop Pilla?

Frederick Simon [00:30:26] No, no, that was probably through. Let me see. For many years, the crucifix was in Highland View Hospital Chapel. That’s the hospital that took care of many people that were very sick. So it was there and then it was given to us. So I don’t know how much. I don’t know. I think it was through Chris. There’s a guy named Chris at St. Michael’s who worked for the diocese. She took care of all the statues and crosses and all these things. So she saw that and she set it aside and we had it in someone’s house until we could build it. It’s a beautiful statue. One young person to exception to it. Crucifix. I’m sorry, one young person to exception to it because it’s so realistic. The Latins have, you know, I don’t know if the Spanish, the Italians, when they build Jesus crucified, it looks like a crucified blood is flowing. Blood is flowing. I mean they’re very realistic. So one guy took exception. But that’s the source of our beliefs is the crucified Christ, which is of course, if you really think about it, it’s an incredible belief. Our belief is that God himself would allow himself to be crucified. Even as I think about it, said to Yahweh, must have been a lot of love for him to do that, but. But that’s our belief. So we have a crucified cross. You know, that’s it. I know that some churches, they don’t want to have a crucified Christ. They want to have a glorified Christ. Some churches don’t want to have anything like that. But that’s the facts, as they say. Those are the facts, man. Okay, so that’s that, that’s the cross. And then also there’s another thing here about the stations of the cross, another God given thing. Let me see. The original stations for use in Sagrada Familia were smaller, wood carved stations that were found at Calvary Cemetery. Beautiful. At one time the larger, more colorful stations were in possession of St. Ambrose Church of Belpre, Ohio. I don’t know how to pronounce that. B, E, L, P, R, E. Accent on the second E. Okay?

Ken Valore [00:32:35] I think so.

Frederick Simon [00:32:36] They were purchased from St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, then repainted by professionals. They felt basically they traded with us. We had the wooden ones and had these colorful ones. The colorful ones are perfect. They fit. Because in the Hispanic world, colors is a big thing. You go to Mexico and you get to see that colors is a big- And these are colorful. The others were beautiful wood, but they’re more Germanic in nature, you know. So we traded it. I mean, you should- The reason why I’m excited because you can see God’s role in all this. How he got us to church, bishop’s support, he got us the cross. I mean, everything we needed was provided for us. I mean, it’s just an amazing experience. The baptismal font was given to us. In fact, I went and got it with another guy. Holy. Not holy Martyrs. It was in Elyria. The church in Elyria. They built a whole new area, and they gave it to us just at the same time. So, I mean, it was just remarkable, all the things that. And, of course, it’s very simple. There’s nothing here. And then, of course, the pews were given us by the Ursuline. No, I think we had to pay some money to the Ursuline nuns. The ones. The Ursulines at the mother house. So we got that from them and, you know, did what we had to do, but God provided so that. Okay, so that’s that. There’s this little folder that describes the church further in Spanish and English and gives you a little map of the church. See that? So this is kind of nice. It tells you what. And also tells you why we have it, our needs. So it gives you a lot of the tradition and information. I didn’t want to give too much, but I want to give you the key. There’s a description of the church, this church here, in terms of the people, where they’re from. I said something about why it was established. There’s a copy from the Plain Dealer. I think that’s May 13, 1997. We have a lot of articles. I didn’t do a good job at that. But the articles give you some insights into the purpose of the church, the people in the church, the background, the role of the bishop, the role of, you know. So it’s kind of a good article to read. And then this is the one I sent my mother in New York. And she died two years ago right over here at the manor. At the manor. And I sent this to her in ’98. And I said, mom, this is history. I put down. And here, let me just read you the first part. This is the first Mass we had on Good Friday. Deacon Fred Simon had a Mass.

Millie Simon [00:35:24] Honey, on Friday, it’s a service. On Good Friday.

Frederick Simon [00:35:30] You’Re right. No, it was a service. We didn’t have a Mass. In fact, we gave Communion. Thank you. My bread was not consecrated. Like Good Friday. You don’t have very good. You must know someone in the church. She. Correct. This is right. It’s not a mass. So on Good Friday, Deacon Fred Simon clutched up. See what it says here. I’ll just read you a little bit. On Good Friday, Deacon Fred Simon clutched a blue plastic case carrying his homily. See, I gave that first homily like it was the Gettysburg Address. And it was like. Because I talked about the whole history of the kind of the history of our. Of our journey toward this place, which goes way back to the ’60s or ’70s. Simon was scheduled to preach the homily later that day at the first service in a brand new Hispanic church, La Sagrada Familia. It says yes. Kind of scary. Simon said it’s a historic moment. It’s a wonderful day. A day I personally have been waiting for all my life. Then it tells me a little bit about myself. Puerto Rican, originally from New York, came to Cleveland, ’62, to work as a NASA engineer. The father of nine children. Okay, that’s enough of that. I get the message over there. So this gives you a little flavor, this information, plus what I’ve told you and I gave you the map.

Millie Simon [00:36:45] And would you like to know what we’re doing right now?

Ken Valore [00:36:49] Yeah. What kind of services does the church provide to the community?

Frederick Simon [00:36:54] Well, the community.

Millie Simon [00:36:55] We have a food bank.

Frederick Simon [00:36:56] We have a food bank. And that’s important because we’re in the midst of poverty here. There are a lot of street people here, and our father does not give them money. The previous pastor did. And he’s smart. He gives them food. He’ll take them over and he’ll feed them one way, either here or there, and he spends time with them. So that’s a good thing because a lot of the street people, they’re into survival mode. So they’ll give you. They’ll take cash, but they’ll misuse it.

Millie Simon [00:37:26] Then we have health fairs here. People who don’t have any insurance can. Can get, you know, mammograms and blood pressure.

Frederick Simon [00:37:37] Right now there’s one coming up. Yeah. So. And then they have. The diocese has a lot of meetings here because it has good access to downtown, you know, right here it’s very central. So a lot of times the diocese will have meetings here. The politicians have had meetings here for when they. When they did their campaigning. Of course, once does it. Then you have to open it up to all politicians. It can’t be. But they’ll have meetings here. When the mayor. When the president. Mayor hasn’t used it a lot, I guess when the. What’s her name, the lady mayor. Mayor Campbell. Campbell. She would use it for like meetings when she was planning new designs for the area, for the general area. The architects would come here and show what the people what. So this became a very communal place as well. Not just a place for worship, but it became a very central communal place. As you can see, this area here has very good parts. But when I was, for instance, when I was at where was I when I worked for the judge? Where was I? I was grand jury foreman for a number of months. That’s when I found out there’s a lot of drugs along here. This whole area, it’s a hot area. And so it provides a good image for others that this church is open to help people, especially those in trouble. So we do get a lot of cases-

Millie Simon [00:39:06] Walk ins and non-Hispanic.

Frederick Simon [00:39:09] So it’s not- So we cannot just isolate ourselves from the community. And so I think- So I think that part’s worked out. Some people would say that’s maybe that would. Some people would not have liked that, not have liked that. But I think that that was important, that it not only be an image for the Hispanics to know they’re welcome here, but it should be an image for the community to know as well that they’re welcomed here.

Ken Valore [00:39:37] Yes, you mentioned, you mentioned classrooms.

Millie Simon [00:39:41] Yes.

Ken Valore [00:39:42] What are those used for?

Frederick Simon [00:39:43] Well, we have classes for the young people.

Millie Simon [00:39:46] Religious instructions, preparation for the sacraments.

Frederick Simon [00:39:51] Preparation for sacraments. We ourselves get baptism classes here. And there’s meetings. There’s meetings of all the groups. You know, all the Hispanics have their own groups. The Mexicans have a group, the Puerto Ricans have a group. You know, you have these cultural groups and then you have many, many different kinds of groups. And so they have the meeting rooms, you have the music groups. We have three music groups that meet. We have some really great music that plays here now. We have some really great young English music in 10 o’clock. Our young people have really a great. One of my sons plays. He plays what do you call? Keyboard. But it’s also very modern music, but it’s also mixed with Caribbean beats. We have got a history, you know. And what else would you say?

Millie Simon [00:40:36] Well, you know what? I think just the sign out front shows the neighborhood that, you know, the one side is Spanish, but the other side is English. So that, you know, we’re open to all people to come.

Frederick Simon [00:40:49] Yeah, at first that’s not been an easy process. I think the Hispanics wanted to maintain their identity in a very strong way, but that wasn’t realistic because the young people. You can find a young Hispanic who will talk to you in English, but his boombox will have Spanish music. So their hearts are still Spanish, but their communication has been developed in English, you know, with the young peers. So that’s kind of a new breed that comes out of that. Because of that. Yes, they still will play the Spanish music, the Spanish beat, the. They’ll dance Spanish but they’re also into the Anglo music, the black music.

Millie Simon [00:41:33] The understanding is English.

Frederick Simon [00:41:34] The understanding is English. Right. But the hardest is Spanish. I know myself. Sometimes I’ll have thoughts. I say, how do you say that? Because my first five years of my life was six years. I grew up in Spanish Harlem in New York. It was all Spanish. I didn’t. Eventually I left that, which was really a blessing because you can become. What did I say? A ghetto can kind of limit you. It really can. I mean, you can develop the culture, but it can limit you. So in New York, when I left that, I had to go into some very difficult school system. New York school system, I don’t know how it is, was a really wonderful system. I mean, when I got there, it was hard because I was competing with young kids that had already. They’ve been to school when they came out of the womb, I think, and kids are that way now. But it was like a ghetto. I was born in a ghetto. And it was a good thing that I got out of that because I was able to develop another side, you know. But why am I saying this now? Oh, the kids. Yeah. That we provide opportunities for growth in English as well, I think for the young people. I think that they need to grow. You can’t ghetto if you make a ghetto. If you make a ghetto for any people, you basically, in my opinion, you limit their growth potential. So they should love their birthplace. No problem. I love mine. They should love their language, their foods, which I do like. But then grow as you have the opportunity to grow, whether it be at Cleveland State or wherever. And that means you’ll learn other languages, other people’s ways. I see that as a good. I think you should embrace your own, but embrace others as well. I guess that’s what I’m saying. Does that make sense?

Ken Valore [00:43:24] Sure it does.

Millie Simon [00:43:24] And I think we’re trying to do that here.

Frederick Simon [00:43:27] But there is always that resistance, like people say, speak Spanish. Only the older ones will have that resistance because they’re secure in their culture. You see, their culture is their expression. And they don’t want to see their kids maybe embracing others. When I married Millie, Millie’s Italian, German, I’m Puerto Rican. Well, her mother wanted her to marry an Italian So we ended up having this multicultural family, which is what this is becoming, a multicultural family. So we are incorporating English as well as Mexican and Spanish. So it’s kind of a nice experience.

Millie Simon [00:44:11] Youth minister for the 10 o’clock Mass. One of the youth ministers is 100% Puerto Rican. Her husband is Polish, you know, so.

Frederick Simon [00:44:23] Yeah, so you have that. That’s a reality that this church is beginning to realize. And it’s- But it did- There was some resistance, though, at the beginning. In fact, the present bishop had to insist it would have to be in English. We resisted, though, for a while there.

Ken Valore [00:44:43] I was just curious, because some Germans have. They have a thing where they’ll teach kids German. Do you do anything like that?

Frederick Simon [00:44:56] No, no. It would be good in a way, because the Spanish that often we speak. Like myself, although I did learn Spanish in school as well. Sometimes it’s like a broken Spanish. So if they’re going to speak Spanish, it might be good that they learn the correct Spanish. But. No, we don’t have that. We don’t have that. No, we don’t have classes of Spanish. Yes, but when she went to Spanglish.

Millie Simon [00:45:22] Too, which they say, like the roof of.

Frederick Simon [00:45:26] Yeah. They take English words and put a Spanish accent. But she learned her English. You went to San Antonio, Texas Spanish.

Millie Simon [00:45:34] I’ve always known English.

Frederick Simon [00:45:35] Yeah, right. She went to San Antonio, Texas, and she learned Castilian Spanish. And when she came. Came back, it wasn’t Mexican Spanish, was it? Was it? But when she came back, the Puerto Rican said, why didn’t you go to Puerto Rico to learn. You see, the. There’s always that. But she learned very good Spanish. She corrects them. Now. She knows the spelling, she knows the grammar. She doesn’t always pronounce the Spanish like the tenses. Subjunctive tense. Always had trouble with that one. And she has sometimes trouble with subjunctive tense in Spanish. But she knows the Spanish very well. I mean, she’ll correct my Spanish and she corrects people’s Spanish because sometimes people haven’t had.

Millie Simon [00:46:21] I don’t do it in an obnoxious way. It sounds like you were saying that wrong.

Frederick Simon [00:46:27] No, you don’t do that. No, but I’m just saying that because she learned very well the Spanish. She can see where some people have not had an education in their own language and they misspell words.

Millie Simon [00:46:39] That’s the problem.

Ken Valore [00:46:39] So do you find that for the Spanish masses, the people that come are older and the younger people.

Frederick Simon [00:46:49] They’re older, but they do bring their kids. And I see, that’s the other thing. In the Spanish world, the family is always. There’s a real. They come. Whether they want to or not, they come.

Millie Simon [00:47:01] And really, they don’t get very much out of it, the younger.

Frederick Simon [00:47:04] Sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because in the pre- Well, they’ll get something. But the preaching may not-

Millie Simon [00:47:10] No, they don’t.

Frederick Simon [00:47:10] May not get a lot out of it, but you’ll see a lot of young people at this.

Millie Simon [00:47:15] But the 10 o’clock Mass is well-attended. And there are some elderly there.

Frederick Simon [00:47:20] There are some. But the elderly like to come to the younger Mass. And that was the big difficulty with the 10 o’clock Mass, was that it was in English and they wanted their Spanish, and so that was- They’re paying a little bit of a price.

Millie Simon [00:47:34] It would have been better to have the later mass be the English Mass, since teenagers are out Saturday nights.

Frederick Simon [00:47:41] Yeah, it would have been better, I think. Yeah. Who knows? That might happen.

Ken Valore [00:47:45] Okay. Down the road, just out of curiosity, how many people does the church seat?

Frederick Simon [00:47:53] 500. But the design at the back of the church is all glass. We got this idea from Holy Martyrs Church, Medina. So if there’s a crowd, which there is, like, special, like December 12th, Lady Guadalupe, that church is no longer 500. It’s more like 1500 or 1200 chairs.

Millie Simon [00:48:18] Out in the plaza.

Frederick Simon [00:48:19] In the plaza, we can extend the whole thing. And then the divider to the divider to the. To the hall is opened up so we can go all the way back into the hall. We can have this long church. And that has happened, and we have to put chairs out for that. So, like, if they bring the mariachi bands, you know, which they do, Mexicans come from all over. This place really fills up for that. They may not come to church, you know, normally, but they come for that.

Ken Valore [00:48:55] How big is your congregation? Is it growing or stable?

Frederick Simon [00:48:59] Oh, yeah, it’s growing. That’s a good question. I don’t- Ilda would know that in the store. Maybe you want to ask her. Maybe ask Ilda how big is the congregation? Ask her what it is. I don’t know.

Millie Simon [00:49:12] Yeah, but it is growing because the Hispanics are a very young community, too.

Frederick Simon [00:49:18] Yeah, well, it’s growing because of the migrants, the influx from Central America, things like that. And they know this is their church. The people from Peru put up a shrine here already. They actually taught to the wall. Father gave him permission. So they already have a shrine that they put in there. So as people come in, they establish themselves, and then they want certain services, certain identifications.

Millie Simon [00:49:48] She said 1900 families, people.

Frederick Simon [00:49:53] People, I think wouldn’t be 1900 families. 1900 people. But there are a lot of people that are not registered that come here. So they don’t have that. So they come here for weddings and baptisms.

Millie Simon [00:50:12] I’ll call you that.

Frederick Simon [00:50:14] They’ll come from different parts of Cleveland. So they know this is Spanish, and they know they can get Spanish services. That’s the main thing. And I personally have had to go to other churches for services, you know, like one time to, like, services in the suburbs, because maybe one of the persons was not Spanish. In fact, one time there was a major league ball player that was marrying the daughter of the mayor, and I guess I had to help with the Spanish. So that happens. They’ll call you in to help out with their Spanish service.

Ken Valore [00:50:49] How about the neighborhood? Is it stabilizing? Getting better, getting worse?

Frederick Simon [00:50:57] I think there’s been these efforts by these groups, these groups that have built homes here in this area. I’m not that familiar, but- And they have helped establish. Yeah, I found it to be fairly stable. I mean, they’ve helped in the establishment of the group. And also, Our lady of Mount Carmel plays a big role in community efforts, too, and they stabilize the community. And they have a school, too. We lost one of our more important parishioners to that school because he wanted a school for that, for his children. When I say important, he was like a national figure in the Hispanic world, and he was with us for some time. But when his kids got older, he sent them to Mount Carmel. And the nuns there, a number of them are from Mexico.

Ken Valore [00:51:45] Oh, really?

Frederick Simon [00:51:46] But I don’t think they give the classes in Spanish. I think it’s in English. But a number of them are from Mexico. Yeah. Because they’ve come here for Mass here. So we’re connected with them through this cluster group. Yeah.

Ken Valore [00:52:02] I think that started out to be sort of an Italian church, Right?

Frederick Simon [00:52:06] Yeah. In fact, the first Italian, the pastor, who was so influential because he built an apartment building in the back. I can’t remember his name, but I know he wanted my wife and I to play, to go to that church. He gave his little hints about, you know, because we’re bilingual, mainly. That’s the main reason. But it started as an Italian church. Right. But. Yeah, but they have a school there. That’s the big thing. They have a very good school there, and they have nuns there. It’s very seldom you get nuns in schools nowadays.

Ken Valore [00:52:41] Right. Okay. Anything else you want to- You mentioned in the church, there are different groups have their own-

Frederick Simon [00:52:55] Expression is a good word. A shrine. Yeah.

Ken Valore [00:53:04] Is that normal in the Spanish church?

Frederick Simon [00:53:11] Well, it is here. I’m trying to think of another church like the one in Lorain. I don’t know if they’d have shrines, but they do have their feast days. They would have that for sure. They may have a statue here and there. I think it might be stronger here. We’ve seen it might be this strong.

Ken Valore [00:53:32] Here that they have more of a mix of different-

Frederick Simon [00:53:36] Yeah, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, there’s definitely. I hate to say that because I haven’t been, I would think, but I don’t know. Here definitely we have people from Santo Domingo, you know, I mean, we’re talking about strong leaders now. Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, you know, Cubans. I mean, although not too many Cubans, it’s just a few. But I just feel like maybe here our history is being made by them, by the people. And I guess that’s it, you know, like if you have an established church, people come in and they just have to kind of go with the church as they see it. But here this is being developed as it goes along and I think there’s been a lot of flexibility for them. Yeah, I think. And then like, for instance, when you have, like. I’m thinking of the church, the feast of Alta Gracia for the Santo Domingo, the people from Santo Domingo, they even brought their own priests from Santo Domingo for the service for the celebration. Now the Puerto Ricans will do the same thing. We’ll bring a Puerto Rican priest in, you know, well known one or so, or the Mexicans will do that too. So there’s that tendency. So there’s that flexibility. And I think it’s healthy because it means no one group dominates, right? No, it is good. Yeah, yeah. You don’t get a domination of a group. So it’s. I think that’s healthy. Yes. And of course, now we have English. That’s a new group. You know, I mean, sometimes, like when I’ll give communion in Spanish, you say Cuerpo de Cristo, you know, the body of Christ. And I see this little lady in Spanish and I don’t know what to do. I know she would prefer the Spanish, but as a Spanish man, I say body of Christ. Sometimes I say Cuerpo de Cristo. But the point I’m getting at is it shows that we have to be flexible. We have to be flexible. Now for us, you know, for the Europeans, that’s not a problem. I met Europeans that met this Dutchman once. He knew, you know, I guess Dutch is like German, right? He knew Dutch, he knew German, he knew Spanish, he knew English. I mean, that’s four languages right there. No problem. I mean, I would listen to this guy. No problem. Well, you know, knowing different languages, they learned that at early ages. We resist that here in the country. I think there’s a certain resistance, but I think that when I’ve seen the little kids, they can learn a lot of things at a young age.

Ken Valore [00:56:15] Definitely. Definitely. All right. Well, yeah, if you have anything else, I’d like to thank you.

Frederick Simon [00:56:23] Yeah.

Ken Valore [00:56:23] Much for your time. And you and Millie.

Frederick Simon [00:56:27] And that’s yours. Yes. At least you have that to go.

Ken Valore [00:56:32] At some point, this will. You’ll get up on the Internet and it will become a phone app. And at some point, we will send you a CD of this interview. And if you want, we’ll get one.

Frederick Simon [00:56:46] For the church, too, I guess. So then what happens with some of those CDs?

Ken Valore [00:56:52] Oh, that’s for you.

Frederick Simon [00:56:53] Oh, okay. Good.

Ken Valore [00:56:56] Thank you very much.

Frederick Simon [00:56:57] Okay. You’re welcome. Yeah.

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