Many Catholics are not aware of the fact that there has been only one approved apparition of our Blessed Mother here in the United States since our country was founded in 1776. That apparition (actually three of them) took place in Champion, Wisconsin in 1859, to a Belgian immigrant named Adele Brise. In 2010, Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay declared the apparitions to Adele “worthy of belief.” When the seer questioned Our Lady during one of her appearances as to her identity and the purpose of her visit, Mary reportedly said, “I am the Queen of Heaven. … 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; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.”
And that’s precisely what Adele Brise did for the rest of her life, sometimes traveling as much as 50 miles on foot to bring the truth of the Gospel to young people who desperately needed to hear it. She also built a very successful school. As it says in the informational brochure of the Shrine of our Lady of Champion: “While the population of Wisconsin was rapidly growing throughout the 1840s and 50s, the Church had been unable to keep up with the growing need for pastors. … As a result, people, especially children, were not able to receive proper religious instruction. … These circumstances created a very great need for the mission that Adele had received from Our Blessed Mother.”
That mission is still needed today, perhaps more than ever. Technology has made it possible to proclaim the truth to the world almost instantaneously. But, unfortunately, the same is true of theological and moral deceptions and errors. They too can be transmitted around the world with a single click of a computer mouse. Obviously, therefore, our world needs more parents (who are the primary educators of their children) and more religious educators with the knowledge, the faithfulness — and the passion — of Adele Brise. As Bishop Ricken astutely observed: “[Adele Brise is] 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.”
In June of this year, the bishops of the United States voted unanimously to begin the process which will advance the cause of Adele Brise’s canonization. If that happens, she will be a powerful and effective heavenly intercessor both for parents and catechists, helping to root young lives in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as effectively in the modern world as she did in Wisconsin in the mid-19th century.
