May 19, 2002 By April Straughters 5 min read

Many people from near and far have made their way to the remote area in Shanksville, Somerset County, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed Sept. 11 after passengers heroically overpowered hijackers on their way to the nation’s capital. Jess Beatty of Uniontown made the pilgrimage to that sacred site and it changed his life.

After stopping off at an old church along Stutzman Town Road, approximately 6 miles from the crash site, to see if he could use the bathroom, Beatty met a man on a mission.

Beatty ran into Alphonse Mascerino, an unassigned Roman Catholic priest, who was busy with a friend working on the 100-year-old former Mizpah Lutheran Church, converting it into a memorial chapel.

Beatty, 58, who retired from the Department of Welfare after 31 years, was inspired by Mascerino.

“(Mascerino) told me what he was doing. That he was renovating this church that didn’t even look anything like a church. He said he was creating a place for prayer and reflection, so we will never forget,” Beatty said. “I was so inspired. I thought it was a great idea. The idea that this man was doing this, with no help, made me want to help.”

Beatty told Mascerino that he would donate one day a week until the church was completed, but has since worked two to three days a week doing manual labor, gutting and reconstructing the church, which served as a feed and seed store for the past 25 years.

Mascerino said he wants the chapel to be called “Thunder on the Mountain,” in remembrance of the thunderous roar that echoed through the Somerset area on that tragic day. He said the goal is to to give people a “place to get away from everything.”

“It’s for a quiet time to reflect on our country and what it means that an airplane came down like that,” he said. “It’s nice to say that we will never forget, but I want to be sure that we never forget and I’m sure this church will be here longer than me.”

The story of the passengers aboard Flight 93 is familiar by now to almost everyone. The plane, headed for San Francisco, was hijacked early in its flight and turned back east.

Apparently, it was headed toward Washington, D.C., and perhaps the White House or the Capitol. Several people on the plane, though, contacted family members through cell phones and learned that similar hijackers had crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Fearing the worst, the passengers took it upon themselves to overpower the hijackers and thwart their evil plans. Minutes after their mission was started, the plane crashed in Shanksville.

To Mascerino, the passengers on Flight 93 were more than heroes.

“Those people are martyrs. Self-sacrifice is beyond most of our comprehension. We may do heroic things but not to this degree. They are not here to talk about it because they gave the ultimate sacrifice, so it’s up to us to talk about it and learn from it. Their lives give us eternal glory and teach us to never let anyone take control of your life,’ said Mascerino.

Mascerino’s living that message. He obtained a bank loan for the $18,000 mortgage and purchases tools and necessary supplies as they are needed by “selling everything I have.”

“Don’t think I’m sitting around with no furniture,” he said. “I have a lot of things I don’t need. Every time I need money I sell something.”

He said he has enough lumber because as they take things down they reuse the wood. He said people who have visited the church have started to send money, which prompted him to set up an account.

“I didn’t ask for it (money),” he said. “But they’ve been sending it, so I set up an escrow fund to preserve the chapel.”

Mascerino says he doesn’t really worry about money because he is not on a set timetable. He doesn’t know when the project will be completed, but he said work is progressing faster than expected.

“I think somehow it’s all going to work out and it’s not an issue. I don’t have an agenda,” he said.

Once the refurbishing is completed, Mascerino plans to install stained-glass windows honoring firefighters, police officers, President George Bush and passengers of Flight 93. He hopes to list all passengers and crew names on one of the chapel’s walls.

And Mascerino is determined to finish the job.

“Time for talking is over. It’s time to get the job done. They (passengers) didn’t have time to discuss, they had minutes to act and they acted definitively and bravely in the face of death. They still found courage to do whatever they could,” Mascerino said.

“I didn’t want to sit around twiddling my thumbs, I wanted to do something. It may not be the best thing, but it’s what I can do. This is my tribute to show how much I appreciate what they did and as others help, it becomes their tribute too,’ he added.