Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

The Vatican has announced that the completed restorations on the soaring baldacchino over the central altar of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini will be unveiled on Oct. 27, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has announced that the completed restorations on the soaring baldacchino over the central altar of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini will be unveiled on Oct. 27.

Journalists donned hard hats on Tuesday to get a sneak peek of the nearly finished restorations, climbing the scaffolding all the way to the top of the 94-foot-tall canopy.

The lofty vantage point revealed how the baldacchino’s intricately decorated Baroque angels, cherubs, bees, and golden laurel branches — formerly darkened by centuries of dust and grime — have now been restored to their bright gilded glory.

While the cherubs holding the St. Peter’s keys and the papal tiara at the top of the structure may appear as small details from the ground 94 feet below, up close the chubby cherubs are actually colossal in size, standing nearly as tall as a full-grown adult.

Pope Urban VIII commissioned Bernini in 1624 to design and build the enormous canopy over the Papal Altar of the Confession, located directly over the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle. The  construction took Bernini nine years with considerable help from his architectural rival, Francesco Borromini.

The public will be able to see the 400-year-old twisting bronze columns of the large canopy for the first time since the restoration when Pope Francis presides over the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 27.

At that time, the scaffolding that has surrounded the central altar for the past eight months will finally be removed.

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the restorations manifest “the beauty and glory that the Church should reflect.” He added that revealing the restorations at the Mass is an opportunity to “announce hope as we walk toward a Jubilee of hope.”

An art restorer’s perspective

Giorgio Capriotti is one of the Vatican Museums’ art restorers who meticulously worked on these details on the massive canopy.

Capriotti said that despite more than a century since the last restoration, the restorers found that the baldacchino is in overall good shape. He explained that his task was largely removing the materials, like oil, waxes, and resins, that art restorers had used that unintentionally altered the hue of the historic gold leaf on the baldacchino.

In some places the baldacchino’s gold leaf became “dark and then almost black” because of oxidation due to the humidity, pollution, and dust in the air.

“So we had to remove these substances using solvents … area by area,” Capriotti said.

“Now we will see it as it was when it was built between 1624 and 1635,” he added.

While working atop the canopy, Capriotti and the other restorationists found objects left by the artists and workers who preceded them from past centuries, including old coins, small drawings, and even a 17th-century shopping list, a collection of items he described as almost “a small museum of cultural anthropology.”

“Everything will be archived and studied and set aside as a testimony of the life, the real life of generations of restorers who have followed one another,” Capriotti said.

Restorers also found places where previous workers had signed their names, including signatures from 1685 and 1725.

After visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in 1873, novelist Henry James described his encounter with the baldacchino: “You have only to stroll and stroll and gaze and gaze; to watch the glorious altar-canopy lift its bronze architecture, its colossal embroidered contortions, like a temple within a temple, and feel yourself, at the bottom of the abysmal shaft of the dome dwindle to a crawling dot.”

The Knights of Columbus funded the baldacchino restoration, which was originally estimated to cost 700,000 euro (about $768,000).

“It’s Bernini’s baldacchino … It’s a singular masterpiece of sacred art — one which is instantly recognizable and impressive,” Patrick Kelly, the head of the Knights of Columbus, said at a press conference when the restoration was first announced.

“But, if that weren’t enough, this project also fits very well with our mission and with our history of service to the Church, and, especially, the successors of St. Peter.”

Restoration of the ‘Cathedra of St. Peter’

Restoration work is also being carried out on Bernini’s massive bronze monument at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, called the “Cathedra of St. Peter.”

The massive sculpture depicts four doctors of the Church holding up the throne of St. Peter with gilded angels high above the petrine throne surrounding the oval stained-glass window of the “Dove of the Holy Spirit.”

Art restorers have also been cleaning the massive statues of St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Athanasius, and St. John Chrysostom, which are currently covered by scaffolding. 

Bernini built the monument over the course of 10 years in the mid-17th century to protect a historic relic — a wooden throne symbolizing Petrine primacy with ivory plaques dating back to the Carolingian age in the ninth century. 

The restorations are also providing the chance for the public to see the historic relic of St. Peter’s chair up close. The relic will be on display for visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica from Oct. 27 to Dec. 8.

Bishop Michael Martin prays with victims of Hurricane Helene while surveying storm damage at Swannanoa, North Carolina, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. / Credit: Diocese of Charlotte

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin recently toured several locations in his diocese ravaged by last month’s Hurricane Helene, offering spiritual and material aid to the “stunned” population working to rebuild after the devastating storm.

Western North Carolina over the last few weeks has been dealing with the aftermath of devastating flooding caused by the remnants of the hurricane, which dumped torrential rain on mountain communities there, leaving serious damage and dozens dead.

Catholic agencies have been mobilizing to help with relief efforts as many major roads remain impassable and residents remain stranded in mountain homes and rural areas.

Immaculata Catholic School in Hendersonville — about half an hour south of Asheville — has become a “distribution center” for aid supplies, with volunteers working around the clock to route critical supplies to those without power and drinking water.

The state government on Tuesday reported that there have been 89 confirmed storm-related deaths in the state, with the number expected to rise in the coming days.

‘The sheer power of the storm’

Martin told CNA that he and diocesan staff recently took a trip to several of the harder-hit areas in the Charlotte Diocese to survey the destruction and offer aid to stricken residents, including in Hendersonville and Swannanoa.

The bishop said he was struck by “the sheer power of the storm.”

“One particular thing we saw spoke volumes,” he said. “We saw large rolls from a warehouse, rolls of carpet, up on a hill. It was just so out of place — how did they get where they are?”

“We turned a corner, drove up a little further, and there was a carpet warehouse. It still had its roof and I-beams and still had the concrete slab, but all the walls were totally ripped away. The concrete slab was completely clear. It had taken every roll of carpet out of the building along with the walls.”

“Imagine how heavy those rolls are, even more so when they’re waterlogged — that’s how powerful the water was,” he said.

The bishop said that “people are stunned” in the wake of the tragedy.

“They’re just stunned,” he said, noting “the stunning nature of, one day everything’s fine, and the next day, your town is gone, and your home is gone.”

Yet Martin noted that the population responded by reaching out and helping each other. He said that many people were fortunate enough not to lose their homes and that “those folks are working at the distribution center,” helping others who had lost more.

It was wonderful “just seeing that community connection,” the bishop said. Also affecting, he said, was how so many people flocked to their churches amid the crisis.

“One of the beautiful things is realizing how people come to their parish as a locus for healing and meaning and to be empowered to go out,” he said.

The bishop said the diocese itself has been “remarkably blessed in that, for the most part, our properties suffered relatively minor damages.” 

“Obviously, there have been downed trees, roof issues,” he said. “But all of them are still standing.” 

“We feel tremendously blessed in that, OK, this we can repair,” he said. “The cost to do that, obviously, is going to be considerable. But we’re more focused on rebuilding the lives of the folks in these communities.” 

The bishop encouraged the faithful to donate to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. He said there is a great need for resources, particularly for local undocumented immigrants who may be fearful of approaching official government sources for help.

The bishop noted that others are still suffering from the effects of extreme weather, including Florida, which as of Wednesday was on the verge of being hit by the extremely dangerous Hurricane Milton. “No one has cornered the market on misery,” Martin said. 

Yet “just as God transformed Jesus’ death on the cross into the Resurrection, he transforms our misery into something greater, if we allow his grace to be at work,” the bishop said. 

null / Credit: Billy Hathorn, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has authorized the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to remove a priest from the clerical state after an investigation found he sexually assaulted two children years ago.

Martin Boylan “has been dismissed from the clerical state at the conclusion of a disciplinary process authorized by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) at the Holy See,” the Diocese of Scranton said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Boylan, 76, was removed from priestly ministry in 2016 after he was accused of sexual assault of a minor. The diocese would subsequently receive four more allegations against the priest, all of which were investigated and submitted to the DDF.

The Holy See authorized the Scranton Diocese to adjudicate the matter. The priest was ultimately found guilty of two instances of sexual abuse of a minor. The DDF “reviewed the findings and authorized the Diocese of Scranton to impose the permanent penalty of dismissal from the clerical state on Boylan,” the diocese said.

The priest appealed twice to the Vatican, which in both cases upheld the diocese’s findings.

Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera said in the release that there is “no place in our Church for such heinous acts.”

“We must ensure that our Church is a safe haven for all, and it is our collective duty to protect, to listen, and to stand against any form of abuse,” the prelate said.

“I ask all people to join me in praying for the victims and their families,” the bishop said. “No one should ever have to endure such trauma, and it is our responsibility to ensure that all survivors are heard, supported, and empowered to heal.”

Boylan, who was ordained in 1980 and served at numerous parishes and schools, was among the priests identified as sexual abusers in the bombshell 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse in most of the state’s Catholic dioceses. No criminal charges have been filed against him regarding the allegations.

Dismissal from the clerical state is “the most severe penalty that the Catholic Church can impose on a cleric,” the Scranton Diocese noted.

As a laicized priest, Boylan “will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity,” the diocese said.

“He may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer any of the Church’s sacraments,” it said. “His relationship with the Diocese of Scranton in any official capacity is now permanently ended.”

Pope Francis during the weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square on Oct. 9, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2024 / 13:05 pm (CNA).

In the first general audience since the opening of the second session of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis on Wednesday told pilgrims that Catholics should be aware of the “prohibitions of the Holy Spirit” to ensure the unity and universality of the Church is not compromised.

Continuing his catechesis on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church, the pope emphasized that unity cannot be “achieved on the drawing board” but only through the will and action of the Holy Spirit.

“The unity of Pentecost, according to the Spirit, is achieved when one makes the effort to put God, not oneself, as the center,” the pope said at the end of his address. “Christian unity is also built in this way.”

Addressing hundreds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father encouraged his listeners to become “instruments of unity and peace” moved by the Holy Spirit instead of being driven by “one’s own point of view.”

“We all want unity. We all desire it from the depths of our heart and yet it is so difficult to attain that,” he said. “Unity and concord are among one of the most difficult things to achieve, and even harder to maintain. The reason is that, yes, everyone wants unity but based on one’s own point of view.”

In order to achieve unity within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said it is necessary to also consider the “surprising prohibitions of the Spirit.”

Holy Father cites experience of St. Paul

Referring to the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Father spoke about how even St. Paul and his disciples had to listen to the “prohibitions” of the Holy Spirit about where to preach the Gospel.

“Paul, we read again in Acts, wanted to proclaim the Gospel in a new region of Asia Minor, but it is written that they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit,” the pope said. “The following night, the apostle received in a dream the order to pass into Macedonia. Thus the Gospel left its native Asia and entered into Europe.”

Pope Francis also spoke about the synodal “movement of the Holy Spirit” at the Council of Jerusalem, which discussed whether pagan converts to Christianity needed to adopt customs of the Mosaic Law such as circumcision.

“The Holy Spirit does not always create unity suddenly, with miraculous and decisive actions, as at Pentecost. He also does so — and in the majority of cases — with discrete work, respecting human time and differences, passing through people and institutions, prayer and confrontation. In, we would say today, a synodal manner,” the Holy Father said.

Following the catechesis, the Holy Father greeted the crowds of international pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square and encouraged them to continue to pray for peace and unity in the world.

Before concluding the audience with the prayer of the Our Father in Latin, Pope Francis asked his listeners to also turn to Our Lady and pray the rosary during the month of October.

Maureen McKinley helps her children through some study exercises in her family's dining room in Phoenix. McKinley and her husband, Matt, home-school their five children and offer the older children a curriculum that includes Latin. / Credit: Jake Kelly

CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

Home schooling continues to grow even as the pandemic is no longer a contributing factor, according to a September study that found multiple states reaching all-time-high numbers of home-schooled students.  

The Johns Hopkins School of Education’s Homeschool Research Lab in its 2023-2024 report on home school growth found that 90% of states that shared numbers with the institute reported that home schooling had increased since the previous school year. 

The report, published in September, found that while the total number of students is declining nationwide in part due to declining birth rates, the number of home-schooling students is increasing.

The increase can no longer be attributed to the pandemic, according to researcher Angela Watson. 

“While home schooling grew rapidly during the pandemic, most people thought that students would return to more traditional schools when the pandemic disruptions abated,” Watson wrote. 

“Some states did show a decline, but few have returned to normal, even four years after the onset of the pandemic,” she said. “What we see with the most recent increases in state-reported home school participation is something new — these numbers are not driven by the pandemic.”

Several states reported record-high numbers of home-schoolers in the 2023-2024 school year. North Dakota had a 24% increase in home-schooled students from the prior year, while Rhode Island reported a 67% increase and Wyoming had an 8% increase.

Louisiana, South Carolina, and South Dakota have had continued growth since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Home schooling has grown without interruption in these three states with no “post-pandemic decline.”

Sixteen states had a “rebounding trend,” according to the report. This means that after the pandemic was over, the number of home-schoolers decreased before experiencing a renewed surge in home schooling numbers.

Only two states in the study — New Hampshire and Vermont — reported a decline in the number of home-schooled students in 2023-2024, which in New Hampshire could be attributed to changing methods of categorizing home-schooled students. 

New Hampshire’s state Education Freedom Account (EFA) allows home-schooled students to receive public funding, but students receiving this public funding are not considered part of the total home schooling number, the report noted. 

The program launched in 2021, with the state subsequently reporting a lower number of home-school students than its pre-pandemic count. 

Home schooling models may include microschools, hybrid schools, and home schooling cooperatives, according to the report. Twenty-one states responded to the study and the group is set to publish more data in the coming months, though only 30 states record home schooling participation.

Last October, the Washington Post called home schooling the “fastest-growing form of education” in the United States, with double-digit increases in home school enrollment seen in a majority of U.S. states over roughly the past five years.

“While there is a clear growth trend in home schooling, the reason for that growth is unknown,” Watson noted.

“What is clear is that this time, the growth is not driven by a global pandemic or sudden disruptions to traditional schooling. Something else is driving this growth.”

Cardinal John Henry Newman. / Credit: John Everett Millais, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Newsroom, Oct 9, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Differing from the traditional practice, the feast day of Cardinal John Henry Newman is not celebrated on the day of his death. Instead, in his memory the Church celebrates his feast on the day he converted to Catholicism.

Newman died in 1890 and was canonized a saint on Oct. 13, 2019.

During the Eucharist celebration at Birmingham’s Cofton Park when he was beatified on Sept. 19, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed that Newman’s feast is to be celebrated on Oct. 9.

In general the feast days of blesseds and saints are marked on their “dies natalis” — the day they died. In his case, despite the fact that he died on Aug. 11, 1890, the Church decided to select the day he converted to Catholicism, Oct. 9, 1845, as the day to celebrate his feast.

At the time of the announcement, the Vatican spokesman at the time, Father Federico Lombardi, joked that the Church already celebrates too many great saints in August so placing the date in October seemed like a good idea to him.

The Church also celebrates Sts. Denis and John Leonardi on Oct. 9, while Aug. 11 is the feast of St. Clare of Assisi.

This article was originally published on Sept. 10, 2010, and has been updated.

Rome Bishop Baldassare Reina presides at the closing of the diocesan phase of the investigation into the life and virtues of Chiara Corbella Petrillo in Rome on Friday, June 21, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).

When Pope Francis announced on Oct. 6 that he would create 21 new cardinals later this year, he also gave the Rome Diocese its new vicar general.

As he listed the names of the new cardinals, the pope named “His Excellency Monsignor Baldassare Reina, who will be, from today on, vicar general for the Diocese of Rome.”

From May 2022, Reina has gone from a priest of Agrigento, Sicily, serving in the Dicastery for the Clergy at the Vatican, to an archbishop and cardinal in charge of the diocese of the bishop of Rome — the pope.

Cardinal-designate Bishop Baldassare Reina has been temporarily in charge of the Diocese of Rome in the absence of a vicar general after Pope Francis transferred Cardinal Angelo De Donatis to a post as head of the Vatican’s apostolic penitentiary in April.

Reina, 53, was Rome’s vice regent, the second in command, from January 2023, when the diocese was restructured under a new constitution.

The promotion came less than one year after Reina had been appointed an auxiliary bishop of Rome with responsibility over the “western sector” of the city.

Reina’s background also includes nine years as rector of the major seminary of Agrigento in the southern part of the Italian island of Sicily.

He also taught classes on sacred Scripture at several educational institutions after receiving a master’s-level degree in biblical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1998.

The archbishop has been a priest for 29 years. He will be made a cardinal on Dec. 8.

In an Oct. 7 letter to Catholics in Rome, Reina wrote that Pope Francis’ “dedication to the universal Church and the prophecy he has given us in these years of pontificate urge me to work for a transparent and poor Church, capable of releasing and spreading the fragrance of the Gospel.”

Now, Pope Francis will need to nominate a vice regent, the figure who assists the cardinal vicar in the management of the diocese, which he has also recently reconfigured.

In an Oct. 1 document published Tuesday by the Diocese of Rome, the pontiff said he had decided to incorporate the central sector of the diocese into the other four sectors.

Francis explained in the motu proprio La Vera Bellezza (“The True Beauty”) that with the exodus of residents from the historic center, the number of Catholic parishes in that geographic zone has dwindled to 35, many with few parishioners. The high influx of tourists has also had an impact on the pastoral needs of the area.

The Diocese of Rome was divided into five sectors with each of the five sectors being divided into prefectures. Now, the five prefectures of the central sector will be part of the northern, eastern, southern, and western sectors.

“In this view, there is no longer an isolated center and a periphery divided into separate parts but, in a dynamic vision that envisions not walls but bridges, the Diocese of Rome will be conceived as a single center expanding through the four cardinal points,” he said.

The pope added that he hopes this change will dissolve “the bilateral tension that has been ingrained in social and ecclesial perception over time between the historic center and the peripheries” of Rome.

He said the Jubilee Year in 2025, more than just an occasion to welcome pilgrims from around the world, should also be a time of pilgrimage for Romans themselves and an opportunity to rediscover the spiritual riches found in the churches and religious traditions in Rome’s city center. 

“I wish to strengthen the unitary and synodal perception of the Diocese of Rome starting from its geographical configuration, so that it can better explicate the authentic sense of its centrality and beauty,” Pope Francis said.

Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra meets with Pope Francis in Vatican City on Aug. 17, 2018. / Credit: Vatican Media

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 9, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has annulled the extraordinary process carried out on Father Ariel Príncipi, a priest of the Diocese of Villa de la Concepción del Río Cuarto in Argentina, and confirmed his expulsion from the clerical state.

In recent weeks it became known that, by means of an extraordinary process, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had determined to annul the expulsion and instead impose certain measures limiting the exercise of his ministry.

However, a new statement dated Oct. 7, released by AICA (Spanish acronym for Argentine Catholic News Agency, unrelated to CNA), reversed the previous decision and confirmed the expulsion from the clerical state of Príncipi, accused of crimes against the Sixth Commandment — which include cases of sexual abuse of minors — thus annulling the extraordinary process.

“The sentence of the Buenos Aires Interdiocesan Tribunal of April 8, 2024, which confirmed the penalty of expulsion from the clerical state of Mr. Principi, previously established by the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Cordoba on June 2, 2023, must be considered in force in all its parts and, consequently, the case has been closed,” the Vatican concluded.

Príncipi, incardinated in the Diocese of Villa de la Concepción in the city of Río Cuarto, had been accused in 2021 of the abuse of minors and was tried first by the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Córdoba, which decided to expel him from the clerical state, a penalty confirmed in 2024 after being appealed to the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Buenos Aires.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA. It was updated with new information confirming the expulsion on Oct. 9, 2024, at 10:34 a.m.

Adele Brise. / Credit: National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion

CNA Newsroom, Oct 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In early June, the U.S. Catholic bishops voted unanimously to begin the process of officially declaring Adele Brise a saint. Brise, an immigrant from Belgium living in northern Wisconsin, witnessed the first and only approved Marian apparition in the United States in 1859. Today, Oct. 9, is the solemnity of that apparition known as Our Lady of Champion.

In 2022, the Vatican gave its formal stamp of approval to the apparitions Brise witnessed, recognizing the newly named National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, as an approved apparition site. 

Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, who initiated the formal investigation into the apparitions, told CNA at the June bishops’ meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, that the number of pilgrims traveling to the shrine has increased from 10,000 a year to more than 200,000 a year today since the apparitions were approved.

“The Blessed Mother is calling people to come to the shrine to experience the peace there, the simplicity; the basics of the Gospel, the catechism are exposed there,” Ricken said.

Our Lady of Champion was the patroness of the Northern Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which stopped a the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion on June 16 on its way to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

A saint for our times

On Oct. 9, 1859, the Belgian-born Brise reported seeing the first of three apparitions while walking in the woods in Champion, Wisconsin. Brise, who was 28 at the time, said a woman who was dressed in white and wearing a crown of gold stars on her head asked her to pray for the conversion of sinners and teach children about the faith.

Brise immediately set out to visit families within a 50-mile radius of her home to share the Gospel with them and teach them the catechism. They were Belgian immigrants like herself, but unlike Brise, they had lost their faith since coming to America.

“She’s really current for now because we’re facing the same problems — people not knowing the faith, people having fallen away from the Church. She’s a model for us of what it means to be an evangelizing catechist. She’s very pertinent for today as well,” Ricken told CNA in June.

“From the moment of the apparitions, Adele furiously traveled the wild country of northeast Wisconsin teaching children. She would go so far as to do the household chores for the families in exchange for simply having some time to instruct the children,” Ricken said.

Brise went on to gather other women to help her with her mission and establish a schoolhouse and convent. Brise’s father built a chapel at the site of the apparitions, which eventually became a shrine to Our Lady of Good Help. The name was taken from the words the Blessed Mother said to Brise: “I will help you.”

What did the Blessed Mother say to Brise?

After Brise reported seeing the first apparition, her parish priest advised that if she were to appear again she should ask: “In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?”

“I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received holy Communion this morning and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them,” the apparition said.

According to the shrine’s website, the apparition “gazed kindly” upon Brise and her companions (who could not see her) and said: “Blessed are they that believe without seeing.” Then, looking toward Brise, the Queen of Heaven asked: “What are you doing here in idleness while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son?”

“What more can I do, dear Lady?” Brise asked, weeping.

“Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”

“But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?” Brise said.

“Teach them their catechism,” the woman in white replied, “how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing; I will help you.”

Possible miracles

In his address to his fellow bishops at the meeting in June, Ricken shared the testimonies of people who said they had received healing thanks to the intercession of Brise.

Candidates for beatification and canonization normally require two miracles attributed to their intercession as well as evidence that they were holy and virtuous.

“As we examine Adele’s life more closely and gather testimonies of people who attest to the life of the growing virtue and possession of Adele, two stories of healing speak out to the most,” Ricken said.

He recounted the story of a woman named Sharon, who while hospitalized for depression saw a vision of a woman she believed to be Brise who gave her the will to live a joyful life of faith.

The second person to testify, a man named John, was diagnosed in 2018 with colorectal cancer, which had metastasized to his lungs. He received what he believes to be a miraculous cure after he prayed for Brise’s intercession.

“‘As of January 2022, I was declared with no evidence of disease, and I have been without cancer detected through my last scans all the way through April 2024,’” Ricken quoted the man’s testimony.

“‘I pray every day, and I’m convinced that my visit to the Champion shrine, my deepening relationship with Mary through Adele, has really blessed me,’” the bishop quoted John as saying.

Following a couple of days of prayer events and festivities, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion is celebrating the solemnity of Our Lady today, Oct. 9, with a Mass, rosary procession, adoration, and other prayer opportunities for those gathered to celebrate the solemnity.

This article was originally published on June 14, 2024, and has been updated.

Our Lady of Champion statue at the national shrine in Champion, Wisconsin. / Credit: EWTN

National Catholic Register, Oct 9, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

A new film called “Return to Our Lady of Champion” will premiere on EWTN on the day the national shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Champion celebrates the second annual solemnity of Our Lady of Champion — Oct. 9. The documentary focuses on three bishops most responsible for bringing the shrine to national attention.

The film follows Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin; Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh; and Bishop John Doerfler of Marquette, Michigan, as they return to the shrine to discuss their part in the events leading up to Our Lady of Champion being declared the only approved Marian apparition in the United States and this shrine being raised to national status.

In the film, the bishops also share their own Marian stories, highlighting how their devotion to Our Lady began in their youth and how that devotion eventually tied into their roles as these events progressed. In the film, viewers hear firsthand the bishops’ vivid memories.

“I have to say there’s no question in my mind that this is an act of divine providence,” Zubik said, recounting his own introduction to this holy ground in Champion and learning about the three apparitions of Our Lady to Adele Brise in 1859.

Neither Zubik (who shepherded the Diocese of Green Bay from 2003 to 2007) nor Ricken had ever heard about the apparitions in Champion before they were appointed to head the Green Bay Diocese.

“I say to people, even today, the Queen of Heaven touched down right here — not quite fully — but she touched down right here. She loved us so much,” Ricken said.

When he arrived in the diocese in 2008, he immediately wanted to learn all about the shrine. In the film, he recalls those early days, learning about Brise, the “seer” of Our Lady of Champion, and the area, and seeing the providential connections, such as the name of this Dairy State town being the same name as Brise’s hometown of Champion, Belgium. “So there’s a lot to study here, a lot to get to know,” he said.

“It’s just a beautiful tapestry, a Mary tapestry, to see what she does,” Ricken emphasized. This includes how the lives and devotions of the bishops played into the whole process of bringing the devotion and the shrine to prominence. Their personal stories of how they came to love Mary were part of their personal preparation, not realized at the time, for when they arrived here. Ricken shares a heartwarming example: how, as a young child, he learned of Mary and the rosary from his mother — and how that all became part of overcoming asthma attacks.

As close-up listeners to the conversation of the three bishops, viewers hear their thoughts about Brise’s simplicity and call to teach the faith. Highlights of these segments include shots of the apparition chapel and the shrine grounds. 

The bishops also speak clearly and conversationally about the theology of Marian apparitions. 

“It was the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the nudging of Our Lady that moved me in the direction to say we should take a look at this a little further,” Zubik noted. He then recalled giving then-Father Doerfler, who was his chancellor and vicar general at the time, the task of researching the apparitions. Later, Doerfler also became rector at the shrine for two years when it was first known as the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.

When Ricken arrived, the approval process ramped up. 

“What a wonderful gift this is as a bishop to be able to walk into a place where Our Lady appeared,” he said joyfully. He also recounts some of the stories of answered prayers and healings from people he encountered during visits to the shrine. “I like to listen to people,” he said.

Following are his recollections about the steps to declaring these authentic apparitions and establishing the national shrine.

Viewers learn from the bishops’ conversations fascinating personal connections between them and these Marian appearances.

For example, Ricken shared that he attended seminary at the American College in Louvain, Belgium. He discovered it “was only 11 kilometers [7 miles] from Champion, Adele’s hometown, where she was going to join the convent. I thought, ‘Well, that’s a strange coincidence.’ And so I understood something of the Belgian culture by my three years there and studying the faith of the people there and understanding what their approach was. Then I could start to see maybe I was chosen because of that background,” he recalled.

In Wisconsin “this town is named after Champion [Belgium], which is where Adele made her promises,” Ricken added. “And she felt she lived out her promises here in this place in Champion, Wisconsin.”

The bishops also discuss the “heavenly peace,” as pilgrims describe it, found at the shrine. Some beautiful insights on Jesus and Mary healing divided hearts are also presented.

Doerfler observed that the “answer to so many divisions we’re experiencing is a return to the Lord, and … this is what Mary wants. She wants to bring people to her Son, to heal the divided human heart.”

Ricken shared how he goes to the apparition room, which contains a chapel, and tells “the Blessed Mother this, this, this, this. … I’m kneeling there before the statue, and she just looks at you — I’ve had experiences where those eyes seem alive, and a lot of people do. … She always centers you back on, ‘Follow me. Follow me as I lead you to peace. Follow me.’ That’s what Jesus said, ‘Follow me. I’m the giver of peace. Come to the Giver.’ We work here. We’re at her service. So when she tells us she wants this, we’ll do it. The future is in her hands. We don’t know how to do it [but] we’ll take a step of faith and do it.”

The other bishops also discuss the poignant moments of prayer while walking the perimeter of the property praying the rosary, as Brise and other local faithful did during the Peshtigo fire in 1871.

The engrossing and enlightening conversation of this trio of bishops closest to the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion draws viewers ever closer to the shrine and to our Blessed Mother, who reminded the faithful in rural Wisconsin: “Go and fear nothing; I will help you.”

WATCH

“Return to Our Lady of Champion” will premiere on EWTN on Oct. 9 at 10 p.m. ET.

VISIT

Here is the schedule of events for the solemnity at Our Lady of Champion Shrine, Oct. 7–9.

This article was first published by the National Catholic Register on Oct. 8, 2024, and has been adapted by CNA.