Interview of Father Miguel Melendez

Nicolas Gonzale:               00:01                     My name is Nicolas Gonzalez. It is November the 14th, and I am here with Father Miguel from the Blessed Sacrament. As we start, could you please tell me your name, your age, and who you are?

Father Miguel:                   00:16                     Sure. Father Miguel Melendez. I’m 34 years old, and I’m a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. I was ordained about a year and a half ago. I spent five years in the Coast Guard before six years of seminary, and then also I went to the Coast Guard Academy. Grew up in Blacksburg and Christiansburg, Virginia, and I love Jesus.

Nicolas Gonzale:               00:42                     What made you decide to become a priest?

Father Miguel:                   00:45                     Well, for that last thing that I just said, love Jesus and love of the church, and actually part of it was my interaction with Latinos. I went to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico and just seeing their devotion and their beauty and just the wider church, I think, helped me to fall in love more with them and more with the church and more with God. That was the biggest thing, just having a love for God and the church and having peace for giving my whole life to that as opposed to being married or being in a secular job, to actually to work fully and a hundred percent for the church.

Nicolas Gonzale:               01:32                     More on the Latino community helping you, so where does your family originate from?

Father Miguel:                   01:40                     My dad is from Chile, and my mom is from Virginia. My dad came to the States when he was six and grew up in the States. My mom’s side of the family, they’re very European-American, Irish, German, all sorts of different backgrounds, but basically American. Born in Corpus Christi, raised in Virginia, Blacksburg area.

Nicolas Gonzale:               02:13                     Could you tell me a little bit about your childhood, your education? Were you raised religious?

Father Miguel:                   02:19                     Yes. I was a cradle Catholic. We went to church every single Sunday. I would say that as we grew, my parents became more devotional, so with Lenten devotions, with reading the word of God. They also participated in some conversion-type experiences like going to Cursillo, like retreat conversion-type experiences, and that helped me. Also, listened to a lot of Christian music, especially as I got older. Then I went to public schools in kind of a Bible-believing area, and I think that also helped me with my Catholicism.

Father Miguel:                   03:04                     At the Coast Guard Academy I started praying the rosary and going to Bible studies and owning my faith for myself for the first time, and that also helped me to have that conversion experience. Then I left the Coast Guard, and I did six years in seminary. I have a master’s in divinity and a sacred baccalaureate in theology, essentially master’s degrees for ministry.

Nicolas Gonzale:               03:32                     All right. Then how did you end up in Harrisonburg?

Father Miguel:                   03:36                     That’s a good question. My bishop, yeah, Bishop DiLorenzo, he passed away about a year and a half ago. He sent me here. I didn’t necessarily have the choice. The bishop sends the priests. He might ask them where you’re interested in going, but part of it was having a background in Spanish and Harrisonburg having essentially almost a 50 to 60% Spanish, at least Catholic population.

Nicolas Gonzale:               04:10                     50 to 60%?

Father Miguel:                   04:12                     Of our Catholics here in Harrisonburg are Spanish, and so it’s kind of a requirement to be able to speak Spanish and be somewhat familiar with the culture. Ever since I started seminary, that’s been a part of my walk to be with the Hispanics in the Catholic faith.

Nicolas Gonzale:               04:33                     How would you compare religion in the community where you grew up and then religion in Harrisonburg, so in the sense of community? How was the community involved religiously where you grew up and how is the community, more so the Hispanic community, involved in religion here?

Father Miguel:                   04:57                     When I grew up in Christiansburg, there really wasn’t a Hispanic population there at the time, and there actually is a Hispanic community going to the Catholic church now in Christiansburg in my home parish. I said I grew up in Blacksburg, but Christiansburg really is the town that I grew up in. There was a lot of Christians, and so a lot of people practiced the Christian faith, few Catholics. I went to a parish that was maybe 100 families. Here at Blessed Sacrament we have something like 2000 families.

Father Miguel:                   05:32                     So it’s a huge difference in the size of the church and the community, which we continuously try and build community, smaller communities, out of this big, big community, so that way there is more of a sense of community. But I do feel that the Spanish are very, very welcoming and generous and love community as well, but at the same time they’re not perfect. There can be jealousy and factions and divisions and stuff too, but I think for the most part they’re a very proud, supporting each other and the priests type of community as well.

Nicolas Gonzale:               06:21                     Now, where are most of these families from, would you say, what country or is it-

Father Miguel:                   06:28                     The majority are from Mexico and then a large population from El Salvador. We also have Guatemalans, some Hondurans and just an interspersing from all over essentially Latin America, a few from Argentina and Chile type area, the majority from Central America. And then we’ve got one or two Cubans and a number of Puerto Ricans, that type of thing.

Nicolas Gonzale:               07:03                     Then considering the population, would you say most of them are involved in the church? Would you say most of the community is religious or just some of it?

Father Miguel:                   07:18                     I would say we only have a fraction of the percent. We have on Sundays our largest mass is a Hispanic mass. There’s a ton of Latinos who come. I mean, we hold 600 essentially in our worship space, and it fills all the way to 600, sometimes 7-, sometimes 800. Very crowded, lots of kids. But in comparison to the wider Hispanic population that are Catholic, that’s probably a quarter or 10% of the Hispanic Catholics actually coming to mass.

Father Miguel:                   07:56                     I would say part of that is a lot of them work seven days a week, including Sundays, and/or they’re working 12 hours six days a week, so they’re I think exhausted. I think that’s part of the reason why, but another part is they watch soccer or they’re lazy. A lot of the guys, there’s kind of a machismo culture too, and they just don’t come.

Nicolas Gonzale:               08:20                     Then is it mostly women and children who come and also elderly people, and the men are either working or at home then?

Father Miguel:                   08:36                     You could say the majority is women and children, but there are a lot of men who come too. And there’s a lot of families who come together and, of course, elderly as well. Yeah.

Nicolas Gonzale:               08:56                     So changing the subject a little bit.

Father Miguel:                   08:58                     I would like to comment really quick though, sorry, on the religious sense of the Spanish people. Whereas it seems like the white culture, for lack of a better way to put it, might be hesitant to come to church or there’s more of a culture just not to go to church anymore, the Spanish still seem to have this religious sense, this kind of God sense, and they come regardless of what they have going on in their life a lot of times.

Father Miguel:                   09:33                     Even though we only have 10% of that community, in comparison to, say, the white American community, I’d still say that it’s a larger. They still have this sense that even if they’re not living within the moral standards of the church, they still want to come. Whereas it seems like white people, if they have something going on in their life, then they just don’t come anymore.

Nicolas Gonzale:               10:01                     It’s interesting that you mention it. I remember growing up in Chile we used to go to church every Sunday, but a large part of that was because nothing happened on Sundays. Meanwhile, here there are events on Sundays, many kids play sports or other things like that. Do you think the fact that traditionally Sundays are a religious day for Hispanics, you think that that influences just the fact that they come more, that for their whole lives they’ve seen Sunday as reserved for the Lord? You think there’s a different understanding? Let me phrase the question out of this. Do you believe that devotion is seen differently between the cultures?

Father Miguel:                   10:52                     Absolutely. I’m not so sure how much it has to do with Sunday. I talked about work on Sunday. If there’s anything that keeps them back, it’s work and probably, like I said, football, meaning soccer, and/or the machismo sense and some people just being lazy and just not coming. In terms of devotions and I think in terms of just being Catholic that in some senses for them it might mean more because they’re directly from their country where maybe the church was persecuted.

Father Miguel:                   11:38                     For example, I think there is this sense that the priest is very special because in Mexico they were killed by the thousands in, I can’t remember, in the early 1900s, but also the government persecuted the church in a number of Communist countries, including, I’m not sure if Nicaragua was one.

Nicolas Gonzale:               12:03                     Nicaragua, El Salvador.

Father Miguel:                   12:04                     But I feel like Guatemala or El Salvador, yeah. Because now you have that new saint, Oscar Romero, who very much fought for the church basically versus the government against persecution.

Nicolas Gonzale:               12:18                     And the church has always been a symbol of fighting back against that oppression. In Chile, the pope came when we had a dictator, Pinochet, and he spoke against oppression and that they had to stop. So I believe for a lot of Latin Americans, the church has always been a symbol of hope and has always been there for them in these times.

Father Miguel:                   12:37                     Yes.

Nicolas Gonzale:               12:40                     Bringing it back to you, how would you say your job within the church has changed from when you first got here?

Father Miguel:                   12:54                     Like when I first arrived in Harrisonburg?

Nicolas Gonzale:               12:56                     Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Father Miguel:                   13:00                     It’s a great question. I arrived in 2017, so I’ve been here for about a year and four or five months or so. I think when I first arrived it was just learning how to be a priest and getting to know the people for about the first six to eight months or so and without as many collateral duties. Now I’m very much a part of planning for many different, like adult faith formation, also the liturgy, meaning organizing the different ministries at mass, the readers, the Eucharistic ministers, the altar servers, but retreats, youth ministry, kind of all of these different things I’ve been given in the meantime. And I’m much more involved because I know more people. It’s nonstop.

Nicolas Gonzale:               14:04                     Now, would you say your role within the Hispanic community that you play has changed from when you first got here? Do you believe you’re more involved? You believe that your words carry more weight?

Father Miguel:                   14:18                     Perhaps. I think they’ve gotten to know me more since then, and I’m much more comfortable is maybe one of the biggest differences, so like when I preach in Spanish. I’ve been around them. I used to be so much more nervous, perhaps one part not knowing the community and then another part just being a little bit more shaky in my Spanish. But yeah, I think I’m more comfortable now, and it’s easier to go from an English homily, an English message to a Spanish message for me. I don’t know if that answers that question well.

Nicolas Gonzale:               15:04                     That’s good. Where do you see the church in 10 years in Harrisonburg? Where do you see the Hispanic community in 10 years in Harrisonburg, and where do you see the relationship between the church and the Hispanic community in 10 years?

Father Miguel:                   15:19                     Okay. I think we’ll grow, and the reason why I say that, there’s a couple reasons. The economy is only getting better here in Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, and I think it won’t stop because of the universities. As a result, the church will continue to grow, but also the universities but also the different distribution centers and the turkeys. It’s just a bustling economy. With more jobs comes more people comes a bigger church.

Father Miguel:                   15:53                     I think within our church too we’ll continue to grow, the Catholic Church that is, because we’re focusing more and more on discipleship and evangelization and walking with people and getting to know them and getting them more and more in these smaller communities. I think that will help. That’s the church and the church in Harrisonburg. What was the second one?

Nicolas Gonzale:               16:20                     The Hispanic community in 10 years.

Father Miguel:                   16:23                     The Hispanic community will grow too, absolutely. As Harrisonburg grows, so will they, but because this is a central location for Hispanics, so many of their families are here already, they’ll just keep moving in. More and more will come. Whether it’s from already within the United States or even if they just keep coming from Latin America, they’ll keep coming. Then within the church, Hispanics together, was that the last one?

Nicolas Gonzale:               16:54                     Yes. Do you believe that Hispanics will continue to be as active? Do you think they’ll be more active? Do you think that as time develops and they settle down from first being illegal and then the first generation, do you believe that their involvement will change?

Father Miguel:                   17:13                     That’s a really good question. It really depends on how we evangelize again, for lack of a better … Evangelize meaning spreading the gospel and good news-ing, giving the people the message of Jesus Christ. If we stick to traditional ways, then as they settle and, say, second generations start to raise up, they might leave more because that’s just what we’ve seen in America.

Father Miguel:                   17:42                     As people encounter a lot of doubt with religion and they’re faced with very difficult questions like the church teaches this but I have a different experience and society says this, I might want to leave, I don’t understand, instead of actually looking into it. If they don’t have this foundation of Jesus Christ and this kind of love for the church, they’ll leave. It really depends on us. If we’re able to help them build that and on what they have, then they’ll stay active, but if we’re not, they’ll leave just like every other generation. I mean, the majority, you could say. There’s people who stay, but a lot of people leave.

Nicolas Gonzale:               18:29                     An interesting point that you brought up, this love for the foundation of the church. What does the church do here to promote that love within the community?

Father Miguel:                   18:44                     What we do, we do church services, I guess. We believe that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist and the mass and in the church, in the sacraments, so sacraments meaning a visible sign of an invisible reality, of something actually happening and essentially these signs that Jesus left to be with us to walk with us on our life journey, so marriage, baptism, baptism being birth, marriage being that vocational or priesthood or being fed by the Eucharist, et cetera. That’s what we’re doing to maintain that foundation just normally, but also we’re trying to extend that baptismal sacrament, that sacrament of conversion into discipleship and evangelization.

Father Miguel:                   19:32                     So there’s this group called Kerygma, and they’re very charismatic. It’s a very, very kind of alive group, and then we also have these other two groups called Legion of Mary. They pray the rosary every week. They go out in the community, and they advertise for the church. We do retreats, and we also have Parish Council and that talks with the Hispanic community. There’s just a lot of different ways, youth ministry as well, religious education. All of these ways come together to try and foster that relationship in Jesus Christ and the Spirit.

Nicolas Gonzale:               20:15                     Two final questions, what are some changes that you would like to see in Harrisonburg in the Hispanic community to essentially, I guess, help themselves? What are some things that you think that the community in the area could do to help themselves within the church and also just within the general Harrisonburg area?

Father Miguel:                   20:45                     Like are we talking from a governmental standpoint or … ?

Nicolas Gonzale:               20:49                     Just getting involved more so. Do you believe that there’s a disconnect, first of all, within the Latino community from the larger Harrisonburg community?

Father Miguel:                   21:07                     I do think that one still exists, that language remains a barrier; language and culture remains a barrier. They bring their culture, and they live it out. But it seems that the predominantly white culture still maintains a distance, a separation from, and I think it’s natural. I think it just happens, but I do think that acculturation is happening. We’re seeing some Latinos even if they’re second generation be elected to city council. I think we just had one elected to city council. A number of them have jobs that are managerial positions and different things. Whereas the majority of them I think still work in blue collar, some of them are moving up to white collar positions.

Father Miguel:                   22:09                     I think what I would like to see is that that city help foster that and Rockingham County help foster those things and continue to welcome them as opposed to … I think the city does but as opposed to, “You’re not welcome here because maybe you came in a status that wasn’t legal,” or whatever the case is. Whereas these people have been here for sometimes 10, 20, 30 years, and they’ve only been adding to the community. They’ve only been working for the community and basically pumping money into the economy.

Father Miguel:                   22:53                     Within the church was the second?

Nicolas Gonzale:               22:56                     Yes.

Father Miguel:                   22:56                     For what changes I would like to see?

Nicolas Gonzale:               23:01                     Yeah. What changes would you like to see within this church to further help include the Latino community or help them out in a sense?

Father Miguel:                   23:17                     I would like our church to own that we have a ministry that is largely Hispanic and to really support it both by mouth and our welcoming presence. In other words, not only the Hispanic community, which does this, but also the white community, to really, really reach out and when you see a Hispanic person to say hello, to wave, to get to know them even as opposed to just letting them walk by and go to their functions. And continue to offer both Spanish and English services as much as possible, because you have to do that.

Father Miguel:                   24:15                     The youth is a huge thing too because we have so many of them. I think a lot of our programs are geared towards adults. We have one youth minister here, but our youth need guidance, and they need direction. I would like the Hispanic community to embrace that too, not just feed themselves but feed their kids and not just drop them off for religious education but help make things happen. I think that might be an area that we struggle with and that we can improve on too.

Nicolas Gonzale:               24:52                     All right. Well, thank you very much for taking the time out to do this interview today.

Father Miguel:                   24:57                     My pleasure.

Nicolas Gonzale:               24:57                     All right.