By Roy Rasmussen | For On Mission
CHAMPION, WI — Over 700 students from Catholic schools across the Diocese of Green Bay plus accompanying staff attended the annual All Schools Mass with Bishop David Ricken and 15 concelebrating priests at The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. Kairos year seminarians of the Diocese of Green Bay also participated in the Mass.
Celebrated on the feast of St. Teresa of Jesus, the Mass expressed gratitude for the gift of Catholic schools, communities and their supporters. The Mass also expressed Green Bay Catholic schools’ dedication to Our Lady of Champion. Attendance helped fulfill requirements to receive a plenary indulgence, with the Shrine marked as one of three sacred places of pilgrimage in the Diocese of Green Bay for the Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee Year.
In keeping with the Jubilee Year, Bishop Ricken emphasized how Catholics are called to hope and holiness, rooted like branches in Jesus as the vine. He held up recently canonized St. Carlo Acutis as a role model of holiness for Catholic youth.
“Every one of us is being called to be a saint,” Bishop Ricken said. He encouraged students to consider whether God was calling them to a vocation as a priest, religious or married lay person.
Attending students and staff represented the Diocese of Green Bay’s 52 Catholic schools, coming from 16 counties. Students ministered during Mass as readers, altar servers, choir members, greeters and ushers.
At the conclusion of Mass, Bishop Ricken blessed the assembled with a first-class relic that he received from St. Carlo Acutis’ mother. Students presented him with spiritual bouquets: gifts of flowers expressing devotional thanks and prayers.
Bishop Ricken and Fr. Tony Stephens, CPM, led students in a rosary procession after the Mass. Some schools stayed to visit the Shrine’s history center and oratory or enjoy a picnic lunch.
