Replica of holy Franciscan chapel taking shape here
By Rick DelVecchio

A mirror - image replica of St. Francis of Assisi's 13th century chapel, the birthplace of the Franciscan order, the saint's favorite spot and one of the most sacred places in the Roman Catholic world outside the Holy Land, is taking shape at the National Shrine of St. Francis in San Francisco's North Beach. The reconstruction of the humble Romanesque house of worship known as the Porziuncola is being built inside a former gym next to the shrine's church. Workers removed the wooden molds in late January and opened the concrete shell to visitors for the first time.

The replica measures 40 feet long by 13 feet wide by 18 feet high, identical to the dimensions of the original chapel preserved in St. Mary of Angels Basilica in Assisi. Over the next six months, workers will finish the chapel to match the original to the smallest detail, including the frescoes over the entrance and altar, the iron gate in front of the altar, the wooden doors and the bronze - inlaid Latin legend at the threshold that reads "This is a holy place."

Porziuncola means "little piece of ground" in Latin and refers to the run - down Benedictine chapel that young Francis restored in the winter of 1206 after he heard Christ call him to go forth and rebuild the church.

Former San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Angela Alioto, who is directing the chapel project, will travel to Assisi in March to gather rocks for the facade from the same hill where Francis collected the square stones for his place of worship.

Then, on April 22, a delegation from the Order of the Friars Minor, the religious order Francis founded in 1209, will arrive in San Francisco with one of two stones that the order and the Vatican believe were handled by Francis during the building of the chapel. The 2.2 - pound boulder of pink marble will be shown at a fund - raiser at the De Young Museum on April 24 and permanently installed on the replica's altar in an open enclosure designed so pilgrims can touch it.

Many Catholics revere St. Francis as the most Christ - like of saints, and visitors flock to the original Porziuncola to experience the place where he was called to a life of radical poverty, wrote the Rule for his order and "welcomed death singing" on the bare floor in 1226.

The original chapel is perhaps best known for the 1216 event tradition calls the Pardon of Assisi. Francis was praying when he received a pardon from God in the presence of Jesus, the Blessed Mother and a host of angels.

Francis, who was frustrated that the faithful of his day could not obtain pardons unless they traveled to the Holy Land, begged Christ to grant his desire that all who enter the chapel with a penitential heart should be washed of their sins.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger summed up the significance of the Pardon of Assisi and the place where it occurred in a booklet he wrote in 1996: "This place is holy because God came down and spoke to Francis, just as he did with Jacob, Moses, Joshua and Mary in another Holy Land."

The intent of the replica in the City of St. Francis is to capture the spiritual intensity of the original for the benefit of Catholics and non - Catholics alike.

Alioto predicted the chapel will become a major pilgrimage site for people of all faiths who are attracted to St. Francis' values of peace, serving the poor, protecting the environment and loving animals.

She also predicted that it will be a force for evangelizing the Church.

"It's going to bring so many people back to the Church who, for whatever reason in a tumultuous last 10 years, lost faith," she said. "This little place is going to hold that image up again.

"The bottom line is, this is a place where everybody will be able to come when they lose hope and it's a place where people will be able to pray and have some solace."

The $2.8 million, privately funded replica is scheduled to open Sept. 27 during a three - day festival of global peace in San Francisco. Alioto has invited Cardinal William Levada, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and emeritus archbishop of San Francisco, the Dalai Lama and former Vice President Al Gore.

The Porziuncola is the centerpiece of a proposed $10 million transformation of the National Shrine of St. Francis, which is set to be finished in 2010. The restoration includes the retrofitting of the shrine's church, the creation of a piazza modeled on the piazzas of Umbria and the development of the shrine's rectory into a world center of Franciscan thought.

The shrine has been operated by the Archdiocese since the order left in 2005, but Alioto has invited the friars to return as partners in running the center and conserving the Porziuncola.

"I need people who will understand what this precious little jewel is and who are going to protect it," said Alioto, who has been a devotee of St. Francis since she was 13.

Alioto has asked Vatican officials to schedule Pope Benedict XVI for a visit to the Porziuncola on Oct. 4, 2010, St. Francis' feast day. She also is inviting other world faith leaders and hopes to have them together with the pope for a photograph like one taken of Pope John Paul II and other faith leaders in 1986 against the backdrop of the original chapel.

"This is the perfect city in the world to make a statement about what real values are in our Church, the Roman Catholic world and the world of politics," Alioto said. Cardinal Levada agreed to support the project as archbishop in 2005. Alioto then raised funds from Catholic benefactors and set out to Assisi to measure the original chapel so plans could be drawn for the replica.

Because the chapel is guarded and photographs and measurements are not allowed, Alioto went undercover with a delegation of 16 others from San Francisco. They bought dental floss and approached the chapel in twos, using the floss as measuring tape.

"Though the friars would not let me do it I did not have any hesitation in doing it," Alioto said. "I told the 16 people with me - if they bother you just spread out the dental floss and tell them you're saying the rosary, and while you're at it, say a prayer, too. They can't stop you from saying the rosary any way you want. I'm on the floor allegedly saying the rosary but actually measuring the door."

Two weeks later, the leader of the order called to say he had heard rumors. Alioto confessed and went to Assisi to explain.

"He said, 'Who gave you permission?'" she recalled. "And I pointed up."

She also told the friar that the replica, like the original, would be dedicated to the Mother of God.

As Alioto tells the story, the head Franciscan had no choice but to agree. And as a gift, he offered one of two rocks verified as having been touched by the saint.

Alioto left the meeting and went outside to the piazza, where she wept for joy. "This guy is talking about giving me a rock for my city that St. Francis himself used," she said. "It's only the Holy Land that gets closer to my heart."