This is epochal news that I should have posted promptly yesterday... I need to get more information and resources, though...
Vatican officially confirms
first Marian apparition in the USA
150 years ago in Wisconsin
CHAMPION, Wis, Dec. 8 (AP) -- The Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday designated a Wisconsin spot where an apparition of the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared three times to a Belgian-born nun in 1859 as the only one of its kind in the United States.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion, just east of Green Bay near Lake Michigan, has long been a popular destination for the faithful.
But it was only in the last two years that the Diocese of Green Bay undertook the official process to earn the distinction that now puts it in company with renowned holy apparition sites including Lourdes, France; Guadalupe, Mexico; and Fatima, Portugal.
[Seeing as it only took two years to earn the confirmation, one wonders why the diocese waited 148 years to do anything about it!]
Green Bay Bishop David Ricken approved the sightings as legitimate apparitions after a two-year study by a commission he appointed.
Ricken announced the distinction at a special Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at the shrine, where he read from a decree that stated
the apparitions witnessed by Sister Adele Brise in 1859 "do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful."
Brise was 28 at the time of the visions, and had emigrated to Wisconsin from Belgium with her family about four years earlier. Brise would recount that a lady dressed in dazzling white appeared to her and claimed to be the "Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners," according to information provided by the Green Bay diocese.
The apparition asked Brise to do the same, and to gather children and teach them what they should know for salvation.
After receiving the apparitions, Brise established a Catholic school and a community of Franciscan women.
Such sites of confirmed apparition earn that designation only by a Catholic bishop's decree. A spokesman for the Green Bay Diocese said there are only 11 other such sites worldwide, none in the United States until now.
Since this is truly a rare event, you may read the entire decree on
www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/PDFs/decree_OurLadyofGood...
and the website for the Shrine is here
www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/index.html
NB: The last Marian apparition confirmed by the Vatican - in May 2008 - were those that took place in 1664-1718 to Bernadette Rencurel in St. Etienne de Laus, near Lyons, France - an even much longer gap than with the Wisconsin apparitions. For more information, visit the excellent English webpage of Notre Dame de Laus here:
http://ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/0/58/15/29/Lieux-de-reconciliation/Nd_lausAnglais.pdf
Fr. James Martin, who was written a book on the lives of saints, notes the many similarites between the apparitions at Lourdes and at Champlain, Wisconsin:
Striking parallels between
Lourdes and Champion
by James Martin, SJ
December 09, 2010
The Church has approved (as "worthy of belief") for the first time a Marian apparition in the United States, after a two-year investigation by the local bishop.
Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay has approved the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary as seen by Adele Brise in Champion, Wis., in 1859. Bishop Ricken stated in a letter: “I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brise in October of 1859 do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful.” The website for the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help has the story of the apparitions and the life of Sister Adele.
There are several notable similarities to the more well known apparitions at Lourdes, France, to St. Bernadette Soubirous, besides simply the timing - Lourdes: 1858; Champion: 1859.
In both cases,
- the apparitions were to a woman who had struggled with physical infirmities (Bernadette suffered from asthma; Adele lost an eye in an accident);
- the woman was at the time outdoors, in the midst of carrying out taxing physical chores (Bernadette looking for firewood for her family; Adele Brise carrying wheat to a mill);
- the women were poor but pious Catholics;
- the woman was most likely seen as on the margins of society (Bernadette's indigent family was living in a converted jail cell; Adele was a part of a poor immigrant population);
- the local pastor asked for an identification from the vision (Bernadette's pastor, Abbe Peyramale asks; Brise's pastor asks as well);
- the identification given was concise (Lourdes: "I am the Immaculate Conception"; Champion: "I am the Queen of Heaven");
- Mary asks for prayers for sinners;
- the visionary later became associated with a religious order (Bernadette enters the Sisters of Nevers; Adele a group of Third Order Franciscans);
- a chapel is built on the spot of the apparitions, which alters the original appearance of the site (in Lourdes the Grotto is paved over and the course of the nearby Gave River is changed; in Champion, the trees in which the Virgin appeared are felled to make room for the chapel); and
- the chapels later receive many visitors and miracles become associated with pilgrimages to the shrine.
Here is the story from CNS:
Green Bay bishop becomes first
in the US to approve Marian apparitions
By Sam Lucero
Catholic News Service
CHAMPION, Wis., Dec. 8 (CNS) -- Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay has approved the Marian apparitions seen by Adele Brise in 1859, making the apparitions of Mary that occurred some 18 miles northeast of Green Bay the first in the United States to receive approval of a diocesan bishop.
Bishop Ricken made the announcement during Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. More than 250 invited guests filled the shrine chapel to hear Bishop Ricken read the official decree on the authenticity of the apparitions. He also issued a second decree, formally approving the shrine as a diocesan shrine.
The decree on the apparitions' authenticity comes nearly two years after Bishop Ricken opened a formal investigation. On Jan. 9, 2009, he appointed three theologians to study the history of them.
"They are all theologians with a particular concentration and expertise in the theology of the Blessed Virgin Mary," said Father John Doerfler, vicar general and chancellor of the diocese.
Although the three theologians were not named by the diocese, Father Doerfler said two of the three are internationally recognized and they have "general experience in examining apparitions."
Brise, a Belgian immigrant, was 28 when Mary appeared to her three times in October 1859. The first appearance took place while Brise was carrying a sack of wheat to a grist mill about four miles from Robinsonville, now known as Champion.
A few days later, on Oct. 9, as Brise walked to Sunday Mass in Bay Settlement, about 11 miles from her home, Mary appeared to her again. After Mass, Brise told the pastor what she had seen. He told her to "ask in God's name who it was and what it desired of her," according to a historical account found on the shrine's website.
On the way home from Bay Settlement, Mary again appeared to Brise. When Brise asked who the woman was, Mary responded, "I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners and I wish you to do the same."
She told Brise to "gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross and how to approach the sacraments."
Brise devoted the rest of her life to teaching children. She began a community of Third Order Franciscan sisters and built a school next to the shrine. Brise's father, Lambert, built a small chapel near the spot of the apparitions.
When a brick chapel was built in 1880, the trees where Mary appeared were cut down and the chapel's altar was placed over the spot. A school and convent were also built next to the chapel.
The current chapel was dedicated in 1942 under the title of Our Lady of Good Help. Today the shrine, which sits on six acres of farmland, receives thousands of visitors each year.
Brise died on July 5, 1896, and was buried in a small cemetery just east of the chapel. Father Doerfler, who serves as the shrine's rector, said official recognition of the apparitions affirms "the mystery of God's providence."
"He has had the Blessed Virgin Mary appear here. I do not know the reasons why," he told
The Compass, Green Bay diocesan newspaper. "All of this ... has to do with God's plan to bring people to salvation through his son Jesus Christ."
Apparitions have taken place throughout history "as a sign of God's providence, to remind us of what God has already revealed," said Father Doerfler. "As a loving mother would remind her children about things that are important, so our Blessed Mother Mary has appeared throughout history to remind us of things that are important for our salvation and to draw us closer to her Son."
Marian apparitions date back to the fourth century and have been reported around the world, according to the University of Dayton's Marian Library, which holds one of the world's largest collections of research on Mary. The Marian Library lists 11 Marian apparitions that have received official approval by diocesan bishops worldwide since 1900.
Karen Tipps, who has been a volunteer and caretaker of the shrine with her husband Steve for 18 years, said Bishop Ricken's decree "is the fulfillment of everything we've worked for: to make the shrine a beautiful place of pilgrimage; to try and promote the message of what happened here."
While the declaration will not change the way longtime pilgrims view the shrine, it will change the way the rest of the world sees it, she said. "The shrine has had pilgrims for more than 150 years ... but in the Church view and the world view, having the bishop gone to this length to get the commission going, it's what others need for affirmation of what happened here," said Tipps.
She believes that the timing of the apparitions' approval was part of a divine plan. "It's now because this message is meant for this time in history," Tipps told The Compass. "If you look at the state of our children right now, there's no hope. There's no faith. There's nothing to live for."
She said a "crisis in catechesis" exists today, much like it did when Brise was told to teach children their catechism. "The message (given to Adele Brise) is, 'Gather the children. Teach them their catechism. Teach them their faith," she said.
"We need to do that. ... We're not giving them the substance of their faith. So I think that's why it is happening at this time in history. That's why Bishop Ricken was brought here. I think it's a divine plan that this needed to come to fulfillment now for the world to get this message."
Tipps said it will be a big adjustment having more people visiting the shrine. "It's been such a quiet place. But now it's for the world to be able to share ... what we've had here and what we've experienced for the last 150 years."
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/12/2010 08:02]