St. Padre Pio Chapel to be built

With so many news reports about people doing terrible things in the name of religion, it’s nice to hear about people motivated to do something positive because of their faith.

Olindo and Filomena DiFrancesco, an Italian immigrant couple who run a business in Rochester, NY, are so devoted to Saint Padre Pio that they are heading up a drive to build a chapel in his honor in the Rochester suburb of Gates, where I live.

They’ve put up $100,000 of their own money to build the $2 million chapel on land donated by the Italian American Community Center.

There are fliers about the chapel in shops all through Gates. People have been chipping in for the project for quite some time.

St. Padre Pio lived in Southern Italy where he drew fame for his holiness, and the mystical experiences attributed to him.

He also had the stigmata, manifesting the wounds of Christ.

He died in 1968 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for this September. The 168-seat chapel is supposed to be completed in the spring of 2007.

I admire the DiFrancesco’s devotion.

I look forward to praying in that chapel.