When I first became acquainted with Irene Sarcletti Selinger, she modestly mentioned that her uncle had been a priest in Melrose Park.  In June of 2000, after he and his wife, Rachel, returned from Cloz, Allen Rizzi sent me this picture of this stained glass window which has the name of Beniamino Franch at the bottom of it.  He asked if I knew why Benjamin Franch would be remembered in such a way.  I didn't, but Irene and her family filled me in.  Then I searched the book, A Courageous People from the Dolomites and found much written about this man who helped not only the Cloziani but the many people of Melrose Park.  He is mentioned in the stories of other immigrants as well.
 

Father Beniamino Franch, a Scalabrinian and missionary priest, is the benefactor of the Cloziani in the Chicago area.  Ordained a priest in 1903, the following year he was sent by his superiors to Utica, New York. one of the first missions among the Italian priests of St. Charles Borromeo, commonly known as Scalabriniani.  Equipped with a knowledge of the English language, he came to Chicago in 1905 as an assistant pastor to Father Lorenzoni of Romallo at the Maria Incoronata Church on 22nd Street, in Chicago's Loop.  He ministered to 200 Italians and many Chinese-Catholics in the parish.  The Archbishop of Chicago called one day on him and said "God has inspired me and I am sending you in his Name to Melrose Park where we have many Italians from Sicily who need a priest.  The task is difficult, the people are stubborn, but God and your Bishop will be with you."

Father Beniamino, who as a boy took care of his eight brothers after his mother died, accepted the invitation.  He was an experienced man, who, when he was 18 years old, went to Vienna to work for the government and later served in the Austrian Army.  He wanted to be a missionary, and his father reluctantly gave him permission.  One day in 1904, Father Franch reached Melrose Park.  He was met by a bunch of fanatic and cynical persons who menacingly and insultingly said to him, "Who are you?  Why did you come here?  Nobody wants you as a Tiroles!"  The good priest faced them courageously saying, "Here I am, and I want to stay.  God  and the Bishop sent me here!"  And he stayed and initiated one of the best Catholic communities in the Chicago area.  The day after his arrival he celebrated his fist Mass in Melrose Park in an old House in a big room which accomodated a hundred people.  He was a courageous man from the Dolomites, not willing to give up.

He started to visit all the families and ate his meals with them.  The process of Christianization was slow and difficult, but little by little he succeeded.  A volume could be written about this man of God, so like the Luchi Brothers in the Hazleton Tyrolean Parish.

As a Provincial he started the construction of a seminary in 1935.  In 1938, Victor Emanuel the Third conferred upon him the title of Cavaliere della Croce d'Italia.  In 1923, on the occasion of his 40th anniversary in the priesthood, the Cloziani of Melrose Park offered him a chalice.  He died at the Oak Park Hospital on May 26, 1954 and was buried at Regina Coeli Cemetary.  On his tomb we read: "Padre B. Franch 1871-1954"  On the 25th anniversay of his death, the Cloziani of Melrose Park celebrated a special day honoring him as the Father and Benefactor of their community.  At the banquet honoring him almost 300 immigrants from Cloz were present together with their families.

Father Benjamino Franch brought his brothers, Francesco and Sisinio from Cloz first.  Another brother, Cirillo, had worked in the coal mines of Bendl, Illinois.  He came to Chicago immediately after the First World War.  Later Father Franch helped his nephews, Alfonso and Benjamino to come to the United States.  This was the beginning of a long list of people from Cloz who formed the great community persons.  (In 1920 reached Melrose Park from Trentino, Costante Rizzi, Gelindo and Francesco Zanoni, Girolamo and Vittorio Canestrini, Firmin Dalpiaz; in 1921 Giuseppe Rauzi, Orest and Giuseppe Zanoni, Giovanni Franch; in 1922, Romano Angeli from St. Louis, Mo., Giuseppe, Erminio and Serafino Zanoni, Albino and Eligio Rizzi, Robert Zanoni, Ernesto Canestrini, and Giuseppe Rauzi; in 1925-26, Mansueto Franch, Aldo Rizzi, Robert Dalpiaz; in 1929, Angelo Franch, Olivo Canestrini, Sabino Zanoni and Cesare Rizzi....

All these people came to Melrose Park a few years before the Great Depression.  Fr. Franch was again the man who managed to have them employed.