Big blaze at Holy Cross Church destroys a beloved structure in San Jose

SAN JOSE -- Holy Cross Catholic Church, a century-old center of a beloved parish, where Mass was still recited in Italian, burned down Sunday afternoon in a four-alarm fire.

"This was home, and now it's gone," said Catherine Ventimiglia, who attended the Italian Mass that ended minutes before the fire broke out around 2 p.m. "We are stunned. My legs are numb from this."

San Jose Fire Department Capt. Mike Van Elgort said the cause of the fire was not known, but the blaze did spread rapidly through the second floor and then to the roof. More than 100 firefighting personnel were still struggling to control the blaze in the late afternoon. By then, the roof had collapsed and two minarets had tumbled.

"It's made of heavy timber, old construction methods and old dry wood," Van Elgort said. "It's a beautiful building. It's a tragedy to see it demolished."

However, the fire had spared the rectory and a meeting hall.

Hundreds of local residents and parishioners -- speaking in Italian, English or Spanish -- stood at the corner of Jackson and North 13th streets and watched their neighborhood and spiritual institution crumble before their eyes.

"I can't believe I'm not going to see my church again," said Debra Cancilla, who was baptized there in the 1950s. "You get to know people and where they sit every Sunday, for years and years. That's not going to happen anymore."

Special crucifix

Holy Cross was founded in 1906 to serve working-class Italian immigrants settling in the Northside, one of San Jose's oldest neighborhoods. The church gained special recognition five years later as an Italian National Parish.

The newcomers that followed the Italians over the decades remained largely Catholic and working class, but they came from Portugal, Texas, the Philippines and Mexico. The waves of newcomers helped the church remain a Northside anchor.

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Big blaze at Holy Cross Church destroys a beloved structure in San Jose