hello welcome to mosaic. i am tom burke. our guest today and her family have been anchors of san francisco since its earliest beginnings. her name is angela allioto we are so happy to have her here. >> good morning tom. >> i have to say if your name were not angela it would be francis. >> francesca. >> st. francis is indeed your best friend you are a major mover in establishing a national shrine of st. francis racy say in north beach. you were the force that brought the potruncula here do you want

to tell us about the video. >> we made a video about it, in my opinion, just me that says this, so much was prove den shall. so much of it was going to happen no matter what we humans have to say about it. i believe that. there is one part of the video where i say it dawned on me in the middle of creating it what a servant i was and it is so true i mean we were just total servants in creating this amazingly sacred little space in the heart of our city. >> tell us briefly it is what? >> it is the little cabella st. francis himself rebuilt in 1206. >> in assisi. >> i call him francesco he is my best friend. >> he is. he befriended the bishop because the bishop understood

he wanted his real father to be the father heaven not the earthly father he goes down the hill and starts building san domiano. they said to him francis go rebuild my church it is in ruin he rebuilds it and then goes down further into the valley to santa maria de angele lady of the angels and rebuilds the little bendectine chapel. he gives it to st. claire and he creates his order consecrates it, lives there and dies in the portuncula. it was his little corner of the world. >> now we have that corner of his world in north beach. >> that's right the only one in 800 years ever been allowed, which again is many of the reasons i believe it was prove

den shall. it is identical just a little jewel i hope it every morning at 10:00 a.m., i just you know, i just shake my head it is maizing and then on top of the amazingness of it, just like francesco did we have the knights of st. francis there every day, volunteers, keep it open, 6 days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and these are incredible human beings. >> a lot of people coming to see it every day. >> behave up to a thousand people a day -- we have up to a thousand people a day especially the busy days and weekends, north beach, september, october, november. hundreds come daily. >> how many knights? >> 145 knights, 90 knights who are extremely active, we have a lot of knights that are active on the internet for us in other words we don't mandate a presence we do mandate four

hours a month of giving you've got to give if you don't understand the concept of giving, okay, then you don't understand francescos whole life. >> if anyone understands giving it would be you angela. >> it is so great they come. >> you have given your heart and soul to the portuncula we will take a peek. here we go. ♪ [ music ] near the turn of the 13th century a young man sat in intense prayer in a small church just outside the town of assisi. he was discovering his faith, praying for guidance when the figure of jesus on the cross came to life and gave him a simple instruction. francis, rebuild my church which has fallen into ruins. well, thinking christ meant for

him to rebuild the old church where he sat he immediately got to work. so began the remarkable spiritual journey of the man we today call st. francis of assisi. he not only rebuilt the church at san domiano but several others including a small chapel he called his potuncula his little portion. in the process he helped rebuild not only a church but the church, the people of god who saw in francis the light and peace of christ. driven by the same call to serve the lord, to rebuild the church literally and figuratively the people of the national shrine of st. francis have followed in the footsteps of their patron. this is the story of the creation of the portuncula in the heart of the american city

named for st. francis, san francisco. this is the story of the portuncuhla. >> you almost cradled it in your arms. >> well, you know, i look at it and i just still can't believe it. i have been francis can since i was 18 years old i became a member of the secular order in florence, the same place dant, the devine poet became a member of st. franciss order >> you were a wild teen. >> i was a wild teen but francisco entered my heart when i was 15 in assisi for 40 years i have been going to assisi on august 2nd for day of pardoning. the concept we have created here in his american city and the pope has made it a holy

place. and named it portuncula nuova on it. it has a huge significance to its identity with the original and so now we are no long aeroreplica we are now the portuncula nuova and have the pardon of san francisco. >> before we go can you show us the bread of number of people who have been involved. >> the art on the original -- >> that we saw at the beginning of the video you say it was bobby kennedy junior. >> oh t drawings. that is not the art on the portuncula but my friend bobby kennedy junior wrote a book for children on fracescos life i called him can you come out and

give a speech i am going to rebuild this and it would be great if you could come and do a book signing he said you are doing what? i said i am building a little chapel i said just don't can you come? i will send you a ticket he said i don't need a ticket it is for st. francis i will be there. so he came and we used some of the photographs from his book on the life of st. francis it is a children's book. >> we have to sneak away we will be back with angela and more stay with us today is a special day. today, we gather as a nation and as an international community to recognize the selfless decision of one of the most influential women of our time. she's been recognized by religious figures,

and politicians around the world. to us, she's just rachael, but to the rest of the world she's the woman who, after having one too many drinks, chose not to drive home buzzed. here today to honor rachael is the family whose lives she spared. we're back on mosaic talking with angela alioto of san francisco. your family anchors of the city during our break there, you were correcting my

pronunciation of your favorite place. portuncula. >> bravo. >> you mentioned the pardon before we go too far we should fill people in. what are we talking about? >> st. francis believes angels slept in his little portuncula every night he wanted it recognized it was a holy place the angels slept there and that the poor people who he took care of -- these were people who didn't even have birth certificates when they went in it would be the same as if they were in jerusalem going to the holy acceptle kerr or vatican. he went to the pope in 1216 and said you know i had a vision of jesus, jesus and mary came tome while i was kneeling at the altar of my portuncula and jesus asked what do i want i said i want everybody to go to

paradise. which is why it says on our stairs at the portuncula in north beach i want everybody in paradise [ said in italian ] >> he tells the pope i want you to give us the pardon of assisi. i want everyone who enters the door of my little portuncula to be pardoned of their sins so everybody can go to heaven. the pope gave it to him which was really significant you have to remember here is this ragged little guy dealing with all these poor people but he is very disciplined and very very -- i mean he is called the all time political genius. he went back to assisi and had the pardon of assisi. one day i was sitting at cardinal lavedas residence at the vatican and i brought the artist doing the frescoes for me for the portuncula and the

most amazing donor of this whole experience nancy klein of klein vineyards. she is the most giving person i get emotional when i talk about her because i needed to raise a lot of money one morning when i was not going to be able to get the contract signed and i thought i hate to do this but i am going to ask nancy if she will give me this really large check i got up, went to my computer and it is not easy to beg like that and yet i needed to get this done. it was a tore meant. so i got to my computer and there is an e-mail from nancy saying i just sent you a check for the exact amount i was going to ask her for. so i was like oh, thank you francesco. we have an expression that's francesco there he goes again. >> you were on a role >> i took nancy with me to the cardinals residence and out of nowhere, i am telling you this

is so dissent to me i said you know cardinal it would be so fantastic we have 15,000 homeless people in san francisco and 3500 are chronically homeless if we have a place they could come and be pardoned it would be so fantastic. i didn't hear about it -- the cardinal did say i will send it to the committee there is a committee of cardinals who decide these things and so i guess he did because three weeks before we opened the portuncula, i received this document from the pope. >> oh, gosh. >> making our little portuncula. >> crossing it forgives your sins. >> the first holy place paypally decreed in the united states of america. >> francesco and our lord did

it they have very active and our lady intercreeds all the time. >> you've got some souls moving we will take another look at the video. >> okay. >> we will take it right up to the break. ♪ [ music ] the portuncula is an exact scale replica of the revered little chapel in assisi italy where st. francis found his faith heard his lord established his order and insisted on dying when his time came. this is the story of how such a unique piece of religious history came to be hoe kateed 800 years -- located 800 years and 6,000 miles away in san francisco california. ♪ [ music ] >> the story begins appropriately with a vision of rebuilding a church.

>> this was the first church in the town that became san francisco so in that sense we thought of making a shrine of st. francis our patron is st. francis after all and not reopen it as another parish church but as a shrine church that could be a benefit to pilgrims. >> in 1998 st. francis assisi church in north beach became the national shrine of st. francis. seven years later the francis can order decided to reassign the friars who ran it. in 2005 we were really worried when the friars were leaving the national shrine of st. francis i went to the archbishop lavada now cardinal lavada i sat with him for now hours and plotted out we will build the little fortune cue la in the gymnasium -- poor chew cue la and then we will have a

piazza. he got all excited he said you know i am going to let you do this. the key was to build a replica to form the center piece and draw visitors from all over the world. angela first visits the poor chew cue la when she was just 15 years old. -- portuncula she was just 15 years old. later when she could build it, there was a problem no one could take pictures. >> builders came with me to italy. we divided ourselves up by two and went into the portuncula and measured it with dental floss. we got on our knees and measured as if we were saying the rosery and measured it foot

by foot. an artist was outside he would measure the dental floss and put the numbers on the picture immediately. >> angela got a phone call to come explain herself. >> he said to me who gave you permission. how dare you measure our portuncula and i just looked at him and did and i think he saw my love of st. francis and jesus he saw and he says to me you know, during the earthquake we had three rocks fall off this eastern elevation and we believe these rocks were used by st. francis himself in the rebuilding and we would like to give you one as the cornerstone of our new little sister in america. i am like having a heart attack inside i am so excited i can't

stand it. i have been visiting this little place my whole life all of a sudden i am rebuilding the only replica allowed in 800 years it was mind boggling on top of it we are going to have the highest francis can rock, every single symbol throughout this experience has been one of this is going to happen. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

we are back on mosaic talking about north beach pour portuncula. >> bravo. >> you say it took place on two

continents. you were surprised the friars took you under their wing because many times you have been on a do not pray list there. they have escorted you out. >> they have many times. my life has been on these two continents i brought my home outside rome in 75 and i started visiting the portuncula in the late 60s i would go every august 2nd for four days for retreat at 24 years old i had four children. i would bring my children especially my son joe i would push him in and out of the door, i wanted the lord to take care of my son joe who was a handful i would always want to take photographs of my children at the portuncula. well, they don't let you take photographs so i would get busted once in awhile and get escorted out of the portuncula. when the friar now we are up 40 years, 2006, the friar, the

provincial finds out i measured it with dental floss he calls me in. by the end of the meeting he is giving me a rock st. francis himself used to build this. i am a tough trial lawyer, and i am sitting there and he is talking about st. francis used to build the church that rock saw him laugh, saw him cry, saw him dance, saw him sing his songs and it saw him and 800 years later that rock is amazing what he saw. >> and he was on their shoulder when they decided to love you and keep you in. >> please, he looks at me and says we are willing to give you this rock and i am saying to myself you got to be a tough trial lawyer and i looked ate him of course you are. of course you are going to give it to me. i went outside in my piaz za and i had my granddaughter

kiara with me and said grandma is going to cry. when it arrived at the airport it was an amazing experience. >> we are going back to the video so much to say and so much to do. here we go. the design process for the portuncula took place in two continents at the same time. angela took her team to assisi to measure and photograph the original chapel while back in san francisco, architect maurice lombardo considers construction options of the national shrine. >> the first thing we do as architects we look at what drawings were available from the existing and then go in and remeasure the building. as build and then from there we do our schematic design basically first process of designing the new building. at the same time angela is gathering all the information pictures, documentation. >> after my meeting in assisi

was a partnership he sent us all the drawings the original archived drawings from not only the portuncula but those in the vatican archives. >> it is a new building, built a new structural standard, new architectural standard but that is where the relation to new construction ends. >> we are in an earthquake prone area we had to make this seismicically resistant it took extra work to make sure this little chapel fit inside this building and that is one of the reasons we made it three quarter scale you want it to look architecturally correct but if you scale it down three quarter scale you would hit your head we had to do several design studies on how to break the paneling system down so you could still walk through into the door ways yet make it look

like the original. >> we worked on lots of historic buildings but nothing quite like this and i imagine we won't do it again. everything is short term in the united states but the quality of this building it will out last us for many many generations after we are gone there is going to be a great little chapel that will put it into play. >> i'm a big believer in the power of we. we can tackle the tough challenges we face and build community through service and volunteering. the reality is - we're all in this together.

it's time for you to raise your hand, go to serve.gov and get involved in something you believe in. are you with me? are you with me? travel advisories to small business loans. retirement savings to medicare coverage. id theft protection to contacting elected officials. student loans to taxes on-line. whether you have information to get or ideas to give, usa.gov is the official place to connect with your government. from surplus car auctions to finding a new job,

our new mobile apps will keep you updated on the go. so from marriage records to passport applications, veteran's benefits to birth certificates, patent applications to energy saving ideas, product recalls to home buying tips, check out usa.gov. because the country runs better when we stay connected. welcome back our guest is angela. we don't have a long time you have a new video. >> new video coming out that will explain the pardon of san francisco details of the rock at the airport and mayor and archbishop and how they couldn't find it and talk about our new website www.knights of

st. francis of assisi please visit they are wonderful. >> the video is available at the bookstore. yes, 1300 grant avenue. >> thank you. >> thank you so much >> i will bet he is on your shoulder st. francis assisi her best friend she brought him here today thank you ,,,,,,

today, we gather to recognize the selfless decision of one of the most influential women of our time. the woman who, after having one too many drinks, chose not to drive home buzzed. here today to honor rachel is the family whose lives she spared.