Thursday, December 9, 2010

Our Lady of Good Hope Apparition Approved

I just sat that the first U.S. Marian apparition had been approved (as always Jimmy Akin at NCRegister does a great job explaining it!) and I headed over to the shrine's website to read about it. Here's a highlight:

"...Bishop David Ricken announced on Wednesday, December 8th, that he officially approves the Marian apparitions that occurred on the the site of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. The announcement was made during a special Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception held at the Shrine which is located at Champion, Wisconsin.

Reading from his decree, the Bishop stated, “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.”

This declaration makes the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion the first and only Marian shrine in the United States that is on the site of an approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While the Bishops of Green Bay had given full support of the Shrine throughout its history as a place of prayer and pilgrimage, the Apparitions have never received formal Church approval. Along with his decree on the apparitions, Bishop Ricken further approved the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help as an official Diocesan Shrine of Green Bay..."

Read more here.
I would love to be able to visit this site someday!

3 comments:

  1. My husband is from Green Bay and went to Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay. This was huge news to his family!

    On a side note, we just had a son, Alexander, on December 2nd and he's in the NICU right now because he was premature. (He was due Christmas Day!) We have been debating between raising him in the Catholic faith or in the Lutheran faith which is my faith.

    After he was born, I kept calling him Andrew and forgetting his name was Alexander. Well, I went into labor on November 30th, which is St. Andrew's feast day. My husband's patron saint is St. John, St. Andrew's father. My husband's family have always had fishermen, so this was very special to me. St. Andrew is also the patron saint of women who want to become mothers, and this touched my heart.

    I still occasionally call him Andrew, but now its in honor of his patron saint. With the way God has brought everything together, including the shrine and St. Andrew, we have finalized our decision to raise our son in the Catholic faith. Once he's out of the NICU, I'll be starting classes to become Catholic myself!

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  2. Hi LouLou! What a wonderful story! I'm so glad you shared it! I'll keep your family and your little one in my prayers! I hope he gets to come home very soon. And you picked one of my favorite boy names!

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  3. LouLou...I got chills reading your story...I'm so glad I got to see it..I wasn't even going to read this post (no offense Cam) becuase I had seen the article yesterday about the apparition...but wow. How beautiful!! I will be praying for you as you await the homecoming of your son, and as you begin your journey to Catholicism!! Who knows, maybe Alexander will choose Andrew as his confirmation name some day!

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