Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has issued an edict announcing a diocesan inquiry into the “life and heroic
virtues, as well as on the reputation of holiness and of signs” of the Servant of God Adele Brice (1831-1896), a Belgian-American Third Order Franciscan who received Marian apparitions in 1859.
In 2010, Bishop Ricken declared the apparitions at Champion, Wisconsin, “worthy of belief.” In 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the apparition site as a national shrine.
Iin his December 28 decree, Bishop Ricken exhorted “all the faithful to provide me with useful information about the Cause.”