Abstract

This is an interview conducted with Father Andras Antal, Pastor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and Robert Purgert, Parish Council Chairman. A little background is given about Father Antal and then the history of St. Elizabeth since the 1890s and the founding pastor Father Karolyn Boehm . The church was built in 1893. Construction of a school followed and had an enrollment of 1114 students by 1918. St. Elizabeth was the first Hungarian church in the United States. The next part of the interview talks about change within the parish and increase and eventual decline in enrollment. The school closed in 1965. More discussion is held about the architecture of the church and past pastors. Talks continue about the church serving the Hungarian community and how cultural and language tradition is preserved.

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Interviewee

Antal, Andras (interviewee); Purgert, Robert (interviewee)

Interviewer

Valore, Kenneth (interviewer); Lanese, James (interviewer)

Project

Sacred Landmarks

Date

9-27-2011

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

47 minutes

Transcript

Ken Valore [00:00:02] My name is Ken Valore and I’m here with- I’m joined by Jim Lanese to conduct an interview for the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities to document the history of St. Elizabeth Church. We are interviewing Robert Purgert and Father Andras. And the church is located at 9016 Buckeye Road in Cleveland, Ohio. So to start, could you state your name and your affiliation with the congregation?

Fr. Andras Antal [00:00:44] My name is Father Andras Antal, pastor administrator of St. Elizabeth, the church in Cleveland, Ohio, Buckeye Road. 

Robert Purgert [00:01:00] And I’m Bob Purgert. I’m the chairman of the finance committee here at the parish.

Ken Valore [00:01:05] Great. So how long have you been- How long have you been-

Fr. Andras Antal [00:01:13] I came to America from Europe in 1988, January 27th.

Ken Valore [00:01:25] And you’ve been here since?

Fr. Andras Antal [00:01:27] Yes. When I came here, my English was very, very, very limited. And at home in Europe I had never studied English, only the German. And I was five months in Germany, in Frankfurt, and there I started to learn some English. And because of this, the first, from January until April, I was at Saint [inaudible] Church located there. And in 1988, April, I think 18, then Bishop Pilla, how I say that? 

Ken Valore [00:02:18] Assigned you? 

Andras Antal [00:02:18] He assigned me as an administrative pastor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church. 

Robert Purgert [00:02:26] And my family has, between various members, has been in this parish since the late 1890s.

Ken Valore [00:02:35] Terrific. So you want to just, you know, rather than me asking you questions, why don’t you just kind of give us talk about the church when it was founded?

Robert Purgert [00:02:50] Oh, Father knows all this so well. 

Andras Antal [00:02:52] I have a history, very, very short. I could- And you could-

Robert Purgert [00:02:58] I’ll fill in where-

James Lanese [00:02:59] Yes.

Fr. Andras Antal [00:03:02] The church was established in 1892. The first pastor officially who came from Europe, Father Charles Boehm, he arrived here in 1892, December 1st. And in this area, many, many Hungarians, Catholic Hungarians were and immediate started to do something because they didn’t have any location where we have celebrated the Hungarian Mass. Earlier they had other together with the Slovak people in Saint Ladislas, close to Elizabeth Ur. And there they had both in both languages in Slovakia and in Hungarian they had a pastor from Slovakia who spoke Slovak and Hungarian, both languages. But after a time they couldn’t agree and there was problems. And then they started. The Hungarian people started- Catholics started to do something, you know, and very, very fast in December 11th they had a mass in Hungarian on the Woodland there was a chapel, St. Joseph Chapel. And there, Father Boom. They started to have masses. And on the second Sunday they decided that they will build a church for the Hungarian Catholics here. And they went to the bishop and bishop approved. They were playing and they immediately started to do something. And it was so fast, all these things, that in 1893 they bought this place, this property, and on springtime 1893, started to build the first church building. More smaller, like this. And until September the same year, they finished with the building, then they started to have the masses in the first church building. 

Robert Purgert [00:05:56] In fact, that first Mass, I think we have the date here, was September 8, 1893. So from springtime of 1893 until September. September, they built the church. And the first Mass was here, which was less than a year of the first Mass for Father Boehm when he came to America, which was December of 1892. So in less than a year later, he had built a new church and had his first Mass here on this site where we’re at today.

James Lanese [00:06:20] Was it called Saint Elizabeth?

Fr. Andras Antal [00:06:22] Yes. 

Robert Purgert [00:06:23] Yeah. And he was very, very active pastor. Immediately they built. And the same year they established a school also here, the first building. School building. Where is the rectory? Now they’re together, the rectory and school they started when they started the school. Nobody knows exact. I think the Elizabeth hall there is a big building there. It was built in 1900, sometimes 1902 about. And more and more kids came to the school and they built a bigger building. And after another bigger building. 

Robert Purgert [00:07:25] Father, I have a statistic here that by 1918 we had 1,114 children in the school, were taught by 14 teachers, 13 of them nuns. And by 1918 we also had 400. During 1918 we had 455 baptisms, 108 marriages and 206 burials. The parish group, yes, Very, very fast. And I think it’s important to remember too, this was really the first Roman Catholic Hungarian church built in all of the Americas, North and South America. This is the first. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:07:58] Yes, the first building, the first church building that was the first Roman Catholic, not the first parish, because in Loraine they established earlier Hungarian Roman Catholic parish. But they, they didn’t have the buildings. No, no church, no nothing. They, how I say, they were American church. 

Robert Purgert [00:08:24] They, they, they were hold their Mass in an American church. But the parish was started there. And I think that was just a few months before this one in Cleveland, right? 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:08:34] Yes, yes. 

Robert Purgert [00:08:36] Yeah. 

Andras Antal [00:08:36] One year earlier. About two years. Two years. 

Robert Purgert [00:08:40] And then Father Bem was. He was here until 1920 or so.

Fr. Andras Antal [00:08:46] Father.

Robert Purgert [00:08:47] And then, Father.

Fr. Andras Antal [00:08:52] He was here, I don’t know, in nineteen four or something. He went back to Europe and stayed there for about or something. And his man, how I say assistant pastor. He was temporary the pastor until when was in Europe. And when he came back from Europe, he was problems because this assistant pastor was very, very popular. Especially between the richer people. As I heard. He was a very young man and he liked to go to suppers and he was very friendly. But Boehm was not so, so, so friendly man. And when he came back, he found two groups. One group who kept to Father Boehm and their group. They said, oh, we don’t want Father Boehm to come back as a pastor. We are satisfied with his assistant and he doesn’t want to fight with them. And he asked the bishop that he would like to leave Cleveland. And bishop approved. And then Father Sepesy became the second pastor. And Father Boehm went to St. Louis. And there was for a time and there built another Saint Hungry Church in St. Louis. Stayed there for that time, I don’t know how many years. And from St. Louis he went to Buffalo and built a third. Since it’s the Hungarian church in Buffalo. And second she went finished with the building. 

Robert Purgert [00:10:56] They built the new church. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:10:57] The building that- This building, the second church building. 

Robert Purgert [00:11:02] According to this, he started in 1918. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:11:05]1918 started, but was very hard times. War, world war and everything. And they finished only 1922. In February was the bishop came and dedicated, dedicated at that church. 1922, February. And Father Sepesi, the second pastor. 1922, December, before Christmas Day, December 24, he died. I don’t know who was the flu or something. He died recently and suddenly. And the parish full with the school and everything. Two, three priests, you know. And the bishop of Cleveland immediate court, Father Boehm and asked him, please come back. So he left and he accepted. He came back in 1923, January, came back and accepted to be pastor again. The second term, that is. I don’t know exactly the dates. And he was. He had a very, very good associate pastors who helped the elderly associate pastor help it with everything. But he worked very hard the second term also. But he was older, older than 70s something. And after that, when he became weak and old, he said, okay, it was enough. 

Robert Purgert [00:12:57] And so in fact, actually by the end. And then he died in 19 or was active pastor until 1927. And so from the time when he first started it until 1927 in 1927, there were over 2,300 members in the various adult and young adult societies. So I mean, we had really grown immensely in a matter of. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:13:18] And after him came Father. He was in Erie Pay There was a Hungarian church in from there he came here and accepted. And Father Boehm remained here as a pastor, priest and two associate pastors. And they have a lot of 1920s and 1930s. Father Thomas was. Monsignor Thomas was there pastor at that time. Was the real crowd royal the parish and the school also. The school has more than 14,000, 1400 children in the school. 

Robert Purgert [00:14:07] Yeah. And Monsignor Tushu was here for 44 years. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:14:10] Then his pastor almost 44 years. 

Robert Purgert [00:14:13] So he would have been our third pastor. And then he retired. Let’s say I’m looking at this, Father. Is that then when he finally retired, then came- 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:14:24] Then came Father Zahorski, Julius Zahorski. He was in Lorain at that time, but he came from Hungary and he accepted because Father Thomas was sick. And he came here at first as an associate pastor. Started Farther Zahorski. But at that time, 1950s, I think, in the 1960s, ’60s, associate pastor. Yeah, for a time. But how I say, the number of the parishioners- 

Robert Purgert [00:15:07] Yeah. The neighborhood changed. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:15:09] The neighborhood declined very, very fast. Very fast. And the school and everything. 

Robert Purgert [00:15:18] School closed in what, 1960, 1965, I think. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:15:22] Yeah.

Ken Valore [00:15:26] So, you know, just- How about if we talk about the church structure? What style is this church?

Robert Purgert [00:15:35] Romanesque is what they call it, don’t they, Father? 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:15:38] And Baroque. 

Robert Purgert [00:15:40] Baroque and Romanesque.

Ken Valore [00:15:49] Is that why there’s the two towers?

Robert Purgert [00:15:53] I’m not sure. Why are there two towers? Because of the- I think because of the Romanesque is what I’m-

Fr. Andras Antal [00:16:01] Father Byrne, when he was in Europe back he went with all the drawings. 

Robert Purgert [00:16:09] Yeah. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:16:10] And he took from Germany a church. And at that time, the big churches. The big churches had two steeples everywhere. Germany and everywhere. 

Robert Purgert [00:16:26] We have bells in the one tower though. Right. Some of those are cast. Even have Hungarian writing on the sides and things like that. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:16:33] And what I learned personally was at the throne at the Pope and with their drawings. Yes, the Vatican approved that at that time.

Ken Valore [00:16:46] Do you still use the bells?

Robert Purgert [00:16:48] Yep. Oh, yeah. Yes, we do. Bells are rung every Sunday morning for all the masses. And during the consecration.

Ken Valore [00:16:57] It’S getting to be more unusual.

Fr. Andras Antal [00:17:01] And when a funeral.

Robert Purgert [00:17:03] And when we have a funeral, or a wedding, sometimes for a happy occasion too.

Ken Valore [00:17:10] When you walk into the church, what are its highlights? Those windows, were they made in your-

Fr. Andras Antal [00:17:22] No, we don’t have any real documentation regarding to that. But only one window here we could see that. New York, Chicago. 

Robert Purgert [00:17:33] Yeah. There’s a nameplate in there. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:17:36] A company was probably Italian because the style is very, very Italian style. And there is a New York, Chicago, 1920.

Robert Purgert [00:17:48] Somebody appraised the windows. They said there are many millions of dollars to replace these windows. And they document some of the historical Hungarian heritage, as I was mentioning before, is that the first one in the back of the church is the presentation of the crown of St Stephen to the Virgin Mary. And of course, that’s very important in Hungarian history because the country was.When St. Stephen’s son was killed in an accident, he had no male heirs, and so he dedicated the country to Mary. And they call it Regna Marianum. It’s Mary’s land. So actually, the kings in Hungary ruled in the name of Mary’s crown, not in the name of the king. Then the other window that’s up there, there’s two other ones that really are tied directly to Hungarian heritage. One is Saint Laszlo striking the stone to give water to the people. And then the third one is the one of St. Elizabeth. And if you notice, also over the altar is the statue of Saint Elizabeth, you notice that she has a bouquet of flowers under her coat. And the reason for that was, is that her husband, who was a king or prince, he was in the Crusades, and he got killed in the Crusades, and his brother took over the kingdom. They were actually in Bavaria, in the south of Germany at that time. And the brother did not like the fact that she worked with the poor. For some reason, maybe it showed up that he wasn’t taking care of the poor, and he kind of outlawed that. If she went to work with the poor, he was going to punish her. And so one day, when her way to deal with the poor people is that she was stopped by the soldiers, and they wanted to see what was under her coat, because if it was bread, she’d be in trouble. And when she opened her coat, instead of it being bread, there were flowers there. So it was kind of a miracle that she did not get in trouble. And that’s why, if you look at her statue over the altar, she has a loaf of bread in one hand and the flowers in the other, which is the story. And, of course, because she was so benevolent at working with the poor and the sick, that’s why so many hospitals are actually named Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. That was really her kind of mission in life was to take care of the poor and the ill. She died very young. She was only, what, 23 when she died? Saint Elizabeth. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:19:55] Yeah, 24. 

Robert Purgert [00:19:56] 24 years old. So very young widow and a very young woman to have died.

Ken Valore [00:20:03] What are some of the other highlights of the church I mean, this is probably the biggest church that I’ve seen.

Robert Purgert [00:20:12] It can seat, what, 1200, Father? 1,200 people can sit in the church. And was it. It’s nice. It’s not full very on Sundays, very much. But once in a while, when like we had like a few weeks ago, the president of Hungary was here. And when a lot of times for some of the doings from Benedictine High School, they’ll come down and they’ll bring the students here and use the church. And it’s kind of nice to see all those young men, you know, filling up the pews. And so it works out well in that respect.

Fr. Andras Antal [00:20:47] From now, from decades, decades wasn’t full when we had the hundred. The Centennial Jubilee almost.

Ken Valore [00:21:02] Do you have a Hungarian Mass?

Robert Purgert [00:21:05] Yes. Every Sunday, 10:30 is the Hungarian Mass. And probably today it’s interesting how that’s changed is that at one time the English Mass was probably more attended than Hungarian. Now the Hungarian is more attended because of the new immigrant families than the English Mass. So 10:30 every Sunday is Hungarian and then 9 is English. And for most of the big holy days like Christmas, midnight Mass or whatever, Father does kind of a combination Hungarian and English Mass together. So we’ll do various readings. And of course, the kids sometimes don’t like it because they hear two sermons, one in Hungarian and one in English. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:21:39] But too long.

Robert Purgert [00:21:41] Yeah, my kids used always.

Fr. Andras Antal [00:21:45] Well, when I came here, for about 10 years, I had Saturday evening Mass. They came, but they died out, all of them from that neighborhood and everywhere. And then Saturday evening mass in English and Sunday morning at 9 o’clock, also English, there was more people, 40 about. But now 25, 30 people on English Mass on Sunday at 9 o’clock. But in an attempt to- [inaudible] 

Robert Purgert [00:22:20] Most of us are- It’s just the English are its heritage and just a love for the parish and continuation of that’s here. But you know, with our kids too, is that we find even with the Hungarian folks who have come, you know, the kids go away to college and they. They live in different Cities, Columbus, Cincinnati, St. Louis or whatever. So they move. They move away. So we’re going to lose some of the young that aren’t in town, but those who are here and you know, when they’re. This is the nucleus of the community. So it has served even for the new immigrants, as it did for the first that came. This is the place that really jobs and business and things are discussed amongst themselves.

Ken Valore [00:23:00] You talked about new immigrants with this after Communism.

Robert Purgert [00:23:05] Yes. Yeah. And before the EU really opened up, a lot of young families came here still, as our grandparents did, for the opportunity to work. And Cleveland was often known as Hungary’s second and truly was Hungary’s second largest city for many, many, many years. So with this large Hungarian community, this became somewhat of a drawing card for some of the Hungarian families that came here. Some of the first ones that came, we were able to find them jobs because they still really hadn’t really very much English skill. So we found them some jobs. We know some folks who owned some factories and foundries. And just as my grandparents worked at foundries, I knew some people who ran some foundries, and we were able to hire some of that, at least get them started. And then the networking, and just as when our grandparents came too, the networking is what really found them into new jobs. And then they would hear of an opening and they would tell someone else and bring them in. So it kind of just built on each other.

Ken Valore [00:24:04] Were these immigrants, were there different skill levels? Were they-

Robert Purgert [00:24:12] Interestingly, compared to when our grandparents were. And an interesting story about that, I always like this because I was on the tour bus when this happened, that the one woman who was on the bus, her husband was not Hungarian. And we were going through Hungary and we were seeing the castles and hearing about kings. And the husband asked, his wife said, well, maybe we’ll find out that you’re royalty. And she explained to him, I used to think that when I was a little girl too, but my grandfather explained is that the kings and the wealthy people didn’t need to come to America. It was only desperate peasants like him. So, you know, you’re not going to find that you’re royalty. That’s not why you’re in America. Well, it was interesting. That was the first waves that came. But these who came, some of them, I shouldn’t say many, some of them were college educated and were professionals. Unfortunately, a lot of times when you come here, you have to start over because people see a degree from a university they’re not familiar with. But we did have a combination of those who were from all levels of skill, unlike maybe the first immigrants that came. But I will say one thing is that their kids truly assimilate and become Americans very, very fast. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:25:22] And then they came officially with the green cards. And then almost all of them from Transylvania, now part of Romania. Not from Hungary, not from Hungary, from Transylvania.

Ken Valore [00:25:43] At one point, was Transylvania part of Hungary?

Robert Purgert [00:25:46] Oh, yeah. Actually, after this First World War, two thirds of Hungary was ceded to other countries. And half of its population. And the Hungarian people are mudger. You know, we. We look at things here sometimes racially by skin color. But in Europe, they kind of look by ethnic background like Slavic people, Magyar people, German people, Italian people. And so the Hungarians are different than the Romanians and different than the Slovaks because. And their language is different. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:26:16] They’re very, very unique in the Hungarian language. 

Robert Purgert [00:26:18] Which makes it very hard because as I go to Poland, often they can understand the Slovaks and the Czechs and vice versa. But the Hungarian language is totally different. In fact, the only people they’re related to in Europe are the Finns. Finns and Estonians.

Ken Valore [00:26:38] So what kind of. How does the church now interact with the neighborhood or what kind of services does the church provide to.

Robert Purgert [00:26:59] Well, you know, as an ethnic church, the mission here is really more to the Hungarian community than maybe the neighborhood, which has changed from being mainly Hungarian. And I would say that, you know, our priest is very busy because many of the people, as they become older, are in old age homes throughout the whole diocese. So Father has sick calls that run from Paynesville to Lorain to Richfield to Akron to Canton. So it’s a very wide area of where many of these people are, and they require to have Father come to hear confession or whatever. So that is mainly one of the big missions of the parish is still to those. And as I was mentioning to you earlier, is that for many of the people who even learn English later in life, sometimes they lose their English and they only. They revert back to their native tongue that they learned as children, you know, which is Hungarian. So their communication skills of even dealing with a local priest become somewhat hard if they don’t have a Hungarian priest, particularly for the sacraments, as they’re getting old and sick. And then to the Hungarian community, as I said, the new people that came over, it’s really the nucleus of the networking. And it’s also kind of the nucleus of maintaining the cultural identity of the people as well, too. In fact, this past weekend, as I was mentioning, is that the church and the culture are very, very closely intertwined, as in many European cultures are. And in fact, this weekend we had our fall festival. And like most of the doings, it starts off with there’s a mass that then is followed with a dinner and then is followed with, in our case, traditional folk dancing. And for many cultures, of course, folk dancing is an identity that is very important to the people besides the costumes. So the people come in their ethnic costumes as well, too. So this Becomes kind of a nucleus for that. Because in Cleveland, we don’t have a Hungarian community center. The Germans have a community center, but the Hungarians don’t. I think it’s mainly been around because it was an outgrowth of their parishes. So this still becomes the nucleus for those activities.

Ken Valore [00:29:03] I remember this friend of mine. I remember he participated in one of those.

Robert Purgert [00:29:08] The fall festivals.

Ken Valore [00:29:09] Fall festivals. Because we came to see him.

Robert Purgert [00:29:14] Oh, yeah. And the dances. I think all of the kids. My kids, all the kids have to learn at least one or two they dance as young children at least to do one or two folk dances. They learn that as part of their heritage. All of. I did it, my parents did it, my kids did it.Hopefully my grandchildren will do it.

Ken Valore [00:29:33] Do you provide for the kids Hungarian language training at all?

Robert Purgert [00:29:41] Not here, though. There are other organizations that do do that. The scouts were doing that, weren’t they? There is a Hungarian school, west side. They were at the still. They are the Saint Emerick’s Hall. And there is for the Scouts, for the hall and for the Hungarian school also. This is a different organization, the Hungarian school. They have a director or a principal who organizes all these things separate from the Scouts.

Ken Valore [00:30:17] Do you used to have Scouts from here?

Robert Purgert [00:30:19] No, not here. It was really at Saint Emerick’s is where the Scouts were. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:30:22] Yeah, that neighborhood, the Hungarian Scouts. 

Robert Purgert [00:30:25] There were American Boy Scouts here when the kids had. When there was a school. But that’s a different kind of scouting organization, which I understand, Father, you could probably correct me if I’m wrong. Is that when the communists took over is that they basically outlawed that scouting movement. So here it was kind of more of a maintenance of something that was from the days pre the red star going up. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:30:48] This church also had scouts, everything. The school was open. And then when they closed the school, then they went to other places. 

Robert Purgert [00:31:02] But those scouts were the American Boy Scouts. They’re a little bit different than- They’re still Boy Scouts, but these were the Hungarian Scouts.

Ken Valore [00:31:13] It seems to me there was one of the things that the Cleveland Center for Public History and Digital Humanities did. They did a thing on the Cultural Gardens. And it seems to me that wasn’t there something recently at the Hungarian Cultural Garden?

Robert Purgert [00:31:37] Well, president was there a few weeks ago, and they’ve done a lot of redoing of the gardens. They did the ironwork over. I had somebody who I know redid the castings in the fountain. We actually went back. We found some pictures of the old fountain, what it looked like lotus leaves. And we actually- I had an artist draw those up from Kent State. And he actually we furnish those. So they’ve done a lot of refurbishment there at the gardens. And the Hungarian Garden is a very big one. Of all of them that are there, it’s on two tiers. A lot of times people only see it from the Liberty Boulevard or MLK, but really the front of the garden is up on the upper deck where East Boulevard is at.

Ken Valore [00:32:34] Well, obviously the neighborhood has changed. Did you guys ever have a credit union?

Robert Purgert [00:32:42] I don’t know if we did. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:32:43] At this church. St. Margaret had it.

Robert Purgert [00:32:46] Yeah, Margaret’s had it. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:32:47] St. Margaret until they were really [inaudible]. And after that they moved to St. Gregory, to Euclid Green Road.

James Lanese [00:33:01] If you kind of go back to first half of the 20th century, when the church was thriving and had its largest population, Was this immediate neighborhood primarily residential? Right now it looks like it’s pretty heavily industrial. A mixture, if nothing else. And compare that. We’re a little bit down the hill from Woodland and Woodhill and 116th and so forth where St. Margaret’s originally was. Were there two distinct neighborhoods or how would you describe them?

Robert Purgert [00:33:41] Well, there was Hungarian population. There wasn’t. The Eberhard was over here and Micelles was behind us, right around us. But these streets, McCurdy, Ambler, I mean, this was loaded with houses. I mean, you know, it was very, very residential. Of course, now they’re gone. You know, it’s just fields. But this was a very residential area. So what you see up the hill was easy. As this filled up, it just moved east. I remember as a kid, I mean, I walked down these streets, down Houlton. I mean, it was just house after house after house. And of course, those were narrow lots, so the density was very, very high. Of the people that were there. Yeah, 40-foot-wide lots. Exactly. They were 40s.

James Lanese [00:34:27] And St. Margaret’s followed St. Elizabeth’s yeah.

Robert Purgert [00:34:32] When did it open? 1920. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:34:34] 1916. 18, something like that. The history book is it was the first time the associate pastor from here went and they had mass in a house or somewhere smaller. 

Robert Purgert [00:34:51] It was more like a mission. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:34:52] Wasn’t belonged to Elizabeth. Yeah, yeah. As we say in Latin, [ecclesia filia], daughter church. 

Robert Purgert [00:35:04] It just grew so large. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:35:05] And after that it started to be more and more populated than the separate parish they established.

Ken Valore [00:35:19] Anything else you’d like to tell us about the church?

Robert Purgert [00:35:25] Anything else? 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:35:27] Now. 

Robert Purgert [00:35:35] You know, what I think you might mention is that what seems to be kind of the new mission of the church is that for many of the people whose heritage was here, they come back for Special events, anniversaries, weddings, baptisms and those kinds of things. So it’s kind of still, it’s a connection for many people, even though they’ve grown up in the suburbs, back to their heritage of coming to America. Many of their families started here when they first came. And I think one of the other things that kind of happens is that as the kids, as young families from here, if they have children, they want them to go to parochial school. There’s always that kind of the tugging is the that you belong to the parish maybe where your kids are going to school and so you want to attend the mass with the other kids from the class. So you have kind of a little bit of that going on while the kids are in the grade schools at some of those schools. But I think that now for a lot of our kids, what Father did too is ran our own catechism program because a lot of the kids who came here from Europe, their language skills, they were not as good as they are now. But when they first, first came Tenet 15 years ago, Father wanted to make sure that they really got instructed well in the, in the basic tenets of the faith. So even if they were going to PSR at the English schools is that we had our own PSR in Hungarian. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:36:58] We still have, but now only a few, only a few, only a few kids. And we don’t know what will happen because now only two persons live here in the Buckeye area who is very similar here. Only two ladies, they all moved out to the suburbs or died out. 

Robert Purgert [00:37:24] And the other thing that’s happening is that with the EU allowing the free movement of people in Europe to work, a lot of folks who might have thought about coming to America are now going to places like England or Ireland to work or Spain or whatever because there’s opportunities there. And for them it’s easy to get home on a weekend. They can, you know, jump on one of these low cost airlines, at least get home for the, for the weekend where when you come here it’s pretty much it’s not so easy to get back home. So we kind of are seeing that, well, maybe the wave that came here like in the early 1990s, that now that is kind of tapering off as well too, though Europe has some economic situations that it may change. So we really don’t know. We can project out for the next five, 10 years and after that we’ll see what happens. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:38:11] And yesterday we had a district meeting with Slavic Village pastors. And we belong there, really. We are not, we’re on the southeast side, Slavic Village. And already a piece Father Gehry, he said also, hey, I don’t belong to the Slavic Village. They think about that. Why not belong to St. Dominic, that area, St. Ann, that district or something. And there is. St. Adalbert was close. There are Catholics. Okay. The school is still there. Somebody said that no one Catholic kid there. Only the teachers are. I don’t know teachers. But every, every month they have the Catholic Mass.

Ken Valore [00:39:09] Rather than a parish school. Is that a diocesan school now?

Robert Purgert [00:39:14] It’s St. Adalbert.

Ken Valore [00:39:17] At St. Stephen’s they have the school there, but it’s not a parish school anymore. It’s a diocesan school. So they don’t have the, you know, they are at the expense of maintaining the school.

Robert Purgert [00:39:30] I don’t know. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:39:31] Yeah. And the other. Yeah, the other problem with this parishioners. But they went every churches they were here two times about to study it, the situation and everything. But they still, as I signed in the last week Saturday’s newspaper article, they also sent appeal to Rome and they wait for the respond and until then they don’t want to go anywhere. Yeah, they still, they don’t want to go anywhere. District leader asked Father Gary that they went there. He said someone comes sometimes they don’t register. But this is the. They don’t want to register anywhere until they don’t come back. They respond.

Ken Valore [00:40:24] Right, Right.

Robert Purgert [00:40:25] We have that man from the diocese. He was telling. He came out and bid us that he works for the diocese. He’s from that parish. He was telling us exactly. What was his name? He was telling us exactly. What Father saying is that until they make official ruling, they don’t want to appear that they have committed to another parish. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:40:41] This, this, this way they would like to, to keep the, the community together. They say, okay, the bishop closed the. The church’s building, but not their community. Yeah. And as Father said, they, they’ve come here a few times and. Yeah, yeah. So.

Ken Valore [00:41:00] Understanding. I mean this is basically the only Hungarian church left in the diocese, isn’t it?

Robert Purgert [00:41:05] Yes, it is because they closed in.

Ken Valore [00:41:07] Lorain and then closed in Akron and-

Robert Purgert [00:41:09] They closed in Cleveland.

Ken Valore [00:41:10] I mean, how would they expect people from Akron or Lorain?

Fr. Andras Antal [00:41:14] Yeah. 

Robert Purgert [00:41:15] Well, and this is- And Father goes there for when those people are in the old age home and need sacraments. So you’re right, you’re right. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:41:22] A few. About three families from Accra they registered here. One from Barberton, from Hudson, from that part they belonged also to the. About five families from Accra and that’s it. And from St Margaret also, only about six families came here. The older parishioner, Torchay, Mr. Torchay, they live here on the Buckeye. I asked him, Mr. Tolci, where they are? He said, father, only a few older people of us who requested the Hungarian language. The younger people live close to the territorial churches in Solomon, in Shangrin Forest and everywhere. And they are okay there, no problem. 

Robert Purgert [00:42:16] So for them, it’s like, it’s. Since I was going there for English Mass anyhow, is that if it’s closed, I’ll go to English Mass at St. Louis or whatever, so it’s not out. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:42:28] And this from Stadt, they came here and they invited and they said, well, we like everything. It’s a nice church and everything, but the language. The language, yeah, the difference. But they feel that, okay, everybody talks Hungarian, Hungarian, and they don’t feel, okay. I think they feel a little bit discriminated with the language, with the culture, everything. 

Robert Purgert [00:42:58] Well, they don’t feel maybe not discriminated as connected. They don’t feel as connected of that because, in fact, we made sure that when they did come, we had kind of a little joke. We saw everybody from their community was sitting on the one side of the church, and our people were sitting. Our people always sit on the one side of the church. [d I had to explain to them afterwards, I said, you know, you understand that the reason everybody sits on this side is because the heat works better over here. So I said, so when you come next week, you know, don’t sit over there, sit over here. That’s why everybody’s crowded on the one side, you know, so- 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:43:28] Yeah, and these young families who came from Europe, you know, in ’90s and the last years, okay, the kids [crosstalk] speak the standard language for them, but the parents, still, their English is limited.

Robert Purgert [00:43:43] And it’s easier for them when they’re amongst each other to speak in Hungarian. And I don’t speak. I mean, I understand a few words, but, you know, I understand. It’s like when I go to Europe, it’s a lot easier for me to sit with a couple of folks that speak English and to speak English than to try to stumble through, you know, the few words that I pick up. So I think for outsiders that come to that mass, for them, it’s a little bit intimidating when you hear everybody speaking a language that you just don’t feel connected. But we are trying to be. And we’ve told them we’re very welcoming to have new members that are here.

James Lanese [00:44:27] You mentioned Benedictine may visit for masses and things like that. Do you have any. Do you have a formal relationship with Benedictine High School?

Robert Purgert [00:44:37] No, not formal, but Father is pretty close with the priesthood. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:44:40] Yeah. Now I remain alone. All the diocese are Hungarian priests. Hungarian speaking priests. And if I go to a vacation somewhere, only they could help me. 

Robert Purgert [00:44:55] And you go up there? 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:44:58] I go to them, participate on the vesper, evening prayer. And always they invite me to the supper. After the supper. I am very friendly and it’s an informal, but a good relationship.

Ken Valore [00:45:18] Did a lot of the boys go to college?

Robert Purgert [00:45:20] Oh, yeah. We have a lot of alumni from Benedictine here. A lot of alumni. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:45:24] But they have buildings, no problem now. And then the other problem is I heard that they lost also many children. Many students they lost because the parents doesn’t have money to do because has to pay the- And many of them, the parents said, oh, no, we can’t. [crosstalk] The high school, they sent to the other high schools.

Ken Valore [00:45:53] All right.

James Lanese [00:45:54] Anything you’d like to add?

Robert Purgert [00:45:55] No. Whatever you do, if you need anything else though, please call Father. Call me. I’ll- You know. I know yesterday I should have even, you know. I thought you just wanted-

Fr. Andras Antal [00:46:05] And that is the jubilee books. We have two of- The first one is very, very many. Many. 

Robert Purgert [00:46:12] I’ll give them the- I’ll get you some of those books. 

Fr. Andras Antal [00:46:16] The first one in English, but it’s very, very good. Centennial book. You could check it, the dates and everything. The professor from Iripe, he wrote that book, the first one, he was the professor of history in college in Iripe.

James Lanese [00:46:39] Thank you very much.

Fr. Andras Antal: [00:46:40] You’re welcome.

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