The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help

By: Joe Mauricio

 

After a fun three days of work with our journalist colleagues across America (as you read Veronica’s Vibes by now), Veronica and I decided to leave early and visit the newly-approved National Vatican Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, which is 30 minutes away from Green Bay, Wisconsin, the newest enshrined site in the U.S..

August 15, 2016, the historic Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help became officially designated as a National Shrine. It is also known as the first Marian Apparition Site in the United States.

Here’s a brief story of this National Shrine…In 1859, a young Belgian woman named Adele Brise, saw a bright vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary appear between two trees in one of the most unlikely places in Wisconsin. The Virgin Mother told Adele Brise to evangelize children through Catechism and the Sacraments, saying “to go and fear nothing.” By 1868, a chapel and a school were built on the apparition site in Robisonville (now Champion). But, by Oct. 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire spawned the Peshtigo Fire (old name for this area comprising 2,400 square miles) with a series of blazes, firestorms and fire tornadoes that killed 1,500 to 2,500 people. The fire was so intense that it had the “power of a thermo-nuclear bomb and temperatues so high that people were cremated as they fled. By morning, all the houses and fences in the neighborhood had been burned with the exception of the school, the chapel and fence surrounding the six acres of land consecrated to the Blessed Virgin.”

After the Vatican investigations were opened to confirm the validity of the site, it approved the Wisconsin Marian Apparition in 2010. When the final approval for a National Shrine was finally approved, Bishop David Ricken celebrated Mass at the Shrine last August 15, 2016, the Feast of the Assumption.

To be considered a National Shrine, sites are required to nourish the spiritual lives of their pilgrims and be accessible to visitors. It was indeed very accessible for us from Chicago that was just doing some media work in Green Bay that took us to Champion, Wisconsin, in time for the Shrine’s official designation as a national site, and to receive the blessings of the Holy Mother.

Praise the Lord for all the good works that are happening at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. Through the years, so many cases of healings, finances, family problems have been helped and recorded at the Shrine of Good Help.

On your travels going to northeast Wisconsin, you will notice small, frame buildings that look like little farm sheds, with little crosses on top. They were built by Belgian immigrants and their descendants in this part of the country. Visit NE Wisconsin, and stop by the sheds, a relaxing place to pray and rest.

We would like to thank the following people for extending their valuable help for our Shrine visit this past weekend…

* Brad Toll of CDME, CEO & President, Greater Green Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau

* Corrie Campbell – Shrine Events and Communication Coordinator

* Walter Fountain – Operations Manager, Shrine of Our Lady of Good.

The altar of the Our Lady of Good Help located in the basement chapel of the main building.