SpiritDaily: Scheduled Mass by bishop at apparition site fuels speculation

The scheduled appearance of Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, at a shrine that commemorates a reputed apparition has raised speculation that the alleged phenomenon may have been elevated a further step in the approval process, or may even meet with formal approbation.

So far, there is no firm information on what the bishop has decided, what he will proclaim, or why he will be at the shrine on that particular day.

The bishop is set to celebrate Mass on December 8 at the chapel in Robinsonville where -- in 1859 -- a third-order religious named Adèle Brisé reported three apparitions of the Blessed Mother, who gave Adèle the mission of teaching the catechism to the young and warned of a coming chastisement. The final apparition was on October 9. Twelve years later -- to the week -- a horrific wildfire destroyed tens of thousands of acres, sparing only the spot of the apparition when it swept to that locale northeast of Green Bay.

The matter has been under study by a special diocesan commission and according to sources that investigation is winding toward a conclusion. We ask prayers for this shrine and event.

While he makes an annual appearance there on August 15, the Mass comes not only in December -- on another great Marian feast day, the Immaculate Conception -- but is closed to the general public (invitation-only for 260, which is all the chapel there can accommodate, though the grounds themselves will be open).

If approved by a formal pastoral later, the Robinsonville apparition, known as Our Lady of Good Help, it would be the first apparition in the United States to reach the level of full Church sanction.

For now, however, there is only speculation on what Bishop Ricken will or will not say. The shrine is under diocesan control and is prominently featured on the chancery's web site. "Promulgation of the story of Sister Adèle and the Robinsonville apparitions has continued, through the years, to receive the public support and permission of the local bishop of the diocese, though no formal declaration has been made by the Catholic Church," says a pamphlet issued by the shrine, which is directed by a diocesan official. "Since the building of the first chapel, the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help has always been accepted as a special place for prayer and worship in the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay." It is also visited each year by the Apostolic Delegate to America.

the rest at Spirit Daily

If you want to know, the bishop will approve the apparition and I do think that he's doing it next Wednesday on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  I guess they figured I already knew so no need to invite the BC, and YES I would have attended.  Bishop Callahan will be celebrating Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe the same day, maybe he will mention it?