04/10/2026
PILGRIMAGE FROM CHAMPION, WISCONSIN TO DION-LE-VAL
From October 10 to 20, 2026, about a hundred pilgrims, accompanied by Bishop David Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin (United States), will make a pilgrimage to Belgium. They will visit several cities, including Leuven. But their main destination is Dion-le-Val, a village 22 km south of Leuven and the birthplace of Adele Brise, a Belgian immigrant to the United States.
Adele was born in 1831 and emigrated with her family to Wisconsin in 1855. In October 1859, in Champion (near Green Bay), she received several apparitions of a woman dressed in radiant white with a yellow sash and a crown of stars, who identified herself as Mary, Queen of Heaven. Mary instructed Adele to give good catechism to the Belgian-immigrant children and to prepare them well for receiving the sacraments.
In 2010, the Church formally approved these apparitions, and in 2016 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the site a National Shrine—the only one in the United States associated with a recognized Marian apparition. During its annual plenary meeting in June 2025, the U.S. bishops expressed strong support for continuing Adele’s cause for canonization.
On December 28, 2025, during the Eucharistic celebration for the Feast of the Holy Family at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay, Bishop Ricken read an edict, an official announcement from the Church in which the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion formally requested that the Church investigate the life and holiness of Adele (now officially designated a “Servant of God”) with a view to her canonization.
Preparations for this pilgrimage are well underway in Green Bay, Champion, Leuven, and Dion-le-Val. We will certainly keep you updated on the progress of this exceptional and unique evangelization project.
Photo: Diocese of Green Bay
