In Memory
Father Marino Frascati
May 16, 1925 - November 1, 2009

(Plain Press, December 2009) Father Marino Frascati, age 84, beloved Pastor Emeritas of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and a champion of the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, died Sunday November 1st, 2009 at Regina Health Center in Richfield, Ohio. Frascati was active in community organizing and neighborhood development during his tenure as associate pastor and then pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church from 1957 to 1995. During his time at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Frascati helped to close troublesome bars on Detroit Avenue, was a founding member of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization and the Nolasco Housing Organization, and was instrumental in the purchase and clearing of factories and buildings to make way for the Villa Mercede senior high rise and new condos now located on Father Caruso Drive. Fr. Frascati was a champion for neighborhood youth working to maintain a strong elementary school for the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and helping to create youth activities and youth groups in the parish.

In 1995 Fr. Frascati was named head of the Mercedarian order and left the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood to go to the order’s provincial office in New York State. Frascati returned to the neighborhood in time to weigh in on efforts to keep the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood in one City Council ward during the redrawing of Cleveland City Council boundaries in 2001, following the 2000 census. Frascati, serving as Pastor Emeritas at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was part of a group of activists who went to meet with then Cleveland City Council President Michael Polensek to make a case for the neighborhood remaining in one ward.

In May of 2007 a street in the new Battery Park development was named for Father Marino Frascati. The street is located near W. 73rd and Fr. Caruso Drive, just north of Lake Avenue.

The Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization has a special award named in Fr. Frascati’s honor, the Father Marino Frascati Neighborhood Champion Award.

Father Marino Frascati, a native of Italy, came to the United States in 1949 and was ordained a Mercedarian Friar in 1951.

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