Updates will draw attention in upcoming busy pilgrimages season
By Patricia Kasten | On Mission
Story updated March 8, 2024.
CHAMPION — Visitors to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, including pilgrims of the Eucharistic Revival Pilgrimage, arriving at the Shrine on June 16, will enjoy the recent changes and updates.
The Apparition Chapel on the grounds is closed for renovation until March 2. On March 2, Bishop David Ricken dedicated the new wooden altar.
The renovations to the 1942 chapel involve flooring, the pews, sound system, the altar, ambo, and credence table and the communion rail. The goal is to have all the features harmonize with the back altar, which was placed and consecrated in early 2020.
The six-to-eight-week project began after Epiphany weekend (Jan. 6-7) and will be completed by Saturday, March 2, when Bishop David Ricken will consecrate the new altar at 11 a.m. Mass.
Don Warden, chief operations officer, said that everything being done will blend with the wood tones of the back altar. That altar, a reclaimed piece dating to the 1900s, had been entirely updated and stained to blend with the wood beams on the ceiling.
The pews, which were installed less than 20 years ago, will receive a deep cleaning and polish. The new flooring will be ceramic tile and replace the original vinyl tile flooring.
Warden said that the flooring will be brighter, “without grabbing attention. All the visual attention will go up front” on the news altar and renovated sanctuary.
On March 2, 2024, a celebration Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion included the dedication of the new altar. Bishop David Ricken dedicated the altar and celebrated the Mass.
Another new feature will be the communion rail, which will look like wood, but contains a secret.
“What we ended up doing,” Warden explained, “was taking laser scans of the wood carvings on the renovated back altar. We scanned those and printed them with a 3-D printer. So the rail will look like wood to everybody — that’s how we got the exact match.”
It’s a solution to what Warden said could have been “challenging and expensive” if they had tried to handcraft a wood Communion rail to match the back altar
Using the 3-D printer gave them the option of using “new technology for an old look,” Warden said.
Achieving that “old look” will be enhanced by the work of Sr. Caritas Marie Le Claire, a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity, Manitowoc, and talented artist. In 2020, she had worked on the intricate designs on the paneled turnstile on the back altar when it was installed. Her work included gold leaf on the altar spires.
As Warden said, “Sr. Caritas brought out her paintbrushes” and painted all 36 pillars of the new Communion rail so that it would match that back altar.
A remodeling project of this size takes a lot of planning. For example, Warden said they purchased the tiles ahead of time due to expected rises in pricing costs.
And then there was the timing.
“When we decided to do the floor,” Warden said, “we knew (the shrine) would be shut down, so it was also time to do the (new front) altar. All the projects we had in mind drove the timing.”
Overall, given the size of the project, the staff planned to use what are the slow months of winter at the historic site.
“There is not any other 6 to 8 weeks in the year to get that done,” Warden said. “We were fairly busy over Christmas — weather-wise things get quiet (in the winter).
As with any building project, there is some inconvenience. For example, Warden said, when the old flooring was removed, there was noise from grinders. But Warden said they have tried to schedule that work early in the morning before the gift shop — which shares a wall with the chapel — opens.
“We couldn’t have done things like this without using Mother of Mercy Hall,” Warden added. “If we hadn’t had that, well, you’d be shutting the whole shrine.”
Daily and Sunday Mass, Adoration and confessions are being held in the hall, which was dedicated on April 28, 2019. It is the shrine’s largest gathering space and is used for conferences and other special events, as well as Mass.
Renovation of the chapel was entirely funded, Warden said, by generous donations to the shrine’s “Adele’s Wish List,” named in honor of Adele Brice, whose visions of the Blessed Mother were the foundation of the shrine.
“We put the renovation needs out there and it’s amazing how people who stop in and say, ‘What you need, we’ll help you to get that done,’” said Warden.