The Feast of the Holy Family marks historic day in the Diocese of Green Bay
By Benjamin Wideman | For On Mission
Photography by Andy Bott | For On Mission
GREEN BAY, WI — As calendars around the world flipped to a new year, Catholics joyfully reflected on the conclusion of the 2025 Jubilee Year, a Holy Year that officially began on Christmas Eve 2024 and closed on January 6, 2026.
On December 28, the Feast of the Holy Family, Bishop David L. Ricken served as the principal celebrant for a Closing of the Jubilee Year Mass at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay. During that same Mass, Bishop Ricken issued an edict calling for a consultation with the faithful on the cause for Adele Brice. The proclamation was then displayed on a wall outside the cathedral entrance.
Three days later, on the final day of 2025, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo XIV expressed his gratitude to God for the “gift of the Jubilee, which has been a powerful sign of his plan of hope for humanity and for the world.”
The Holy Year theme was Pilgrims of Hope, and the papal bull was accordingly titled “Hope Does Not Disappoint” from Romans 5:5. The 2025 Jubilee Year, which began during Pope Francis’ tenure, invited Catholics to renew their commitment to faith and hope.
“My brothers and sisters, we have experienced together the Jubilee Year,” he told the faithful in attendance. “As a single people, we have offered our praise, thanksgiving and supplication to God … in union with those who are voiceless in the world but whom the Father hears and welcomes as beloved sons and daughters: the sick, the aged, the prisoners, the poor.
“Through the Jubilee indulgence, the Lord has caused a river of grace and blessing to flow. He has granted to all of us his hope and his peace. He has strengthened the weak hands and made firm the feeble knees. He has said to each one of us to take courage, to not be afraid.”
Later, Bishop Ricken began his homily by thanking Fr. Ryan Krueger (St. Francis Xavier Cathedral), Fr. Jim Jugenheimer (St. Pius X in Appleton), and Fr. Tony Stephens and Don Warden (National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion), as well as their staff members and parishioners, for their “extraordinary service” during the Jubilee Year.
“Through the sacraments, pilgrimage, prayer and charity, we have had an intense experience of the Divine Mercy,” Bishop Ricken said while reflecting on the Jubilee Year. “The Lord has washed away our sins and filled us with his grace.”
Throughout the Holy Year, people around the world entered fully into the mystery of Christ in faith, hope and love, Bishop Ricken said. Now, strengthened by the experience of conversion, people were directed to return to the daily course of their lives.
“Like the disciples who saw his face, we shall hold on to the joy of our meeting with the Lord and firmly maintain the profession of our hope, for he is faithful to his promises,” Bishop Ricken said. “And faithful he has been.
“The three fathers who served as the hosts for the Jubilee just before Mass told me that there was a large increase in the number of confessions at their Jubilee sites. They also said that the confessions which people gave, sometimes after many, many years, were very sincere and had a sense of a course correction in their lives. There was an increase in the request for the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.”
Bishop Ricken also said Mass attendance throughout the diocese is increasing.
“Young people throughout the country are sensing a desire to come back to a more solid approach to truth, to faith and to a concrete and stable rock on which they can pitch their tent for the rest of their lives,” Bishop Ricken said.
“There’s a deep search going on in our country and in our world for the simple things that are deeply based in the truth and in the merciful love of Jesus Christ. I’m hoping that many more people have deepened their relationship with Christ, not being satisfied with what has been but sensing a deep longing and desire in their minds and hearts to grow in holiness and to take this good news out to others — that’s called missionary discipleship.”
Bishop Ricken encouraged parishioners to connect with people who may have fallen away from the faith — family members, friends, neighbors, former parishioners — by “reaching out and letting them know they are loved, that God loves them and forgives them. Please come back,” he said.
“We miss you. We miss you in our community whether we even know you. We miss you because we are incomplete without all the members of the Body of Christ being present.”
He continued: “So my hope and prayer is, as the title of this Jubilee Year has said, ‘Hope does not disappoint.’ I know it’s not disappointing me, and I don’t think it should disappoint you either. Look to the positive and keep emphasizing the beautiful things that are happening.”
Citing the Pilgrims of Hope theme, Bishop Ricken directed people to “make a firm resolve that we will never give up on hope, because hope is one of the keys that leads us to what this life is all about. We never give up, because we focus on Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life.
“We focus on the Holy Trinity, who is our hope, and we pass on hope and joy, genuine joy, that comes from suffering and is offered up in generosity. That’s what produces joy, and joy gives hope. When you see someone who’s truly filled with authentic joy, they give you hope. There’s somebody out there [who] believes. There’s somebody [who] calls me to be better than I am right now and to be grateful for all that God has done in my life thus far.”
That hope was reflected in the proclamation of the edit, which marked a new step on Adele’s possible path to sainthood. Adele’s story is well known to those who have visited the nearby National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States.
Adele was born in 1831 in Belgium and, at the age of 24, emigrated to northeast Wisconsin.
Four years later, while walking along a trail in the autumn woods, Adele saw a lady dressed in white, standing between two trees. A few days later, while walking to Mass with two others, Adele again saw the lady. After Mass that day, Adele spoke to her parish priest, and he instructed her that if the lady appeared again to ask the question, “In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?”
On her journey home, Adele saw the lady for the third time. As she and her companions approached the hallowed spot, Adele observed the beautiful lady clothed in dazzling white, with a yellow sash around her waist and a crown of stars around her head.
When asked the question by Adele, the lady replied, “I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received Holy Communion this morning and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them.”
Our Lady then directed Adele: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. … Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing, I will help you.”
This marked the beginning of Adele’s mission to become a teacher for the Lord and the Blessed Lady — a mission she embraced until her passing on July 5, 1896. She is buried near the Apparition Chapel at the Shrine.
Almost two years ago, Bishop Ricken accepted an invitation from the Shrine and the postulator (an expert in Rome who helps guide a cause of canonization) to inquire as to whether to open the cause for Adele. After reviewing the initial documentation, Bishop Ricken consulted with fellow bishops at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Plenary Assembly in November 2024. Having no objections, they offered unanimous vocal support to proceed with the inquiry.
Bishop Ricken then consulted with Rome (the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints) to see if it would grant the nihil obstat (showing that nothing stands in the way of proceeding with the cause). That was recently granted.
The most recent phase was for Bishop Ricken to issue an edict calling for a consultation with the faithful on the cause for Adele. That edict proclaimed: “On May 24, 2024, Dr. Valentina Culurgioni, lawfully appointed as Postulator for the Cause of beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Adele Brice, by the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, Actor of the Cause, submitted to me (Bishop Ricken) the Supplex libellus, requesting the opening of the Cause of the Servant of God and of the Diocesan Inquiry on the life and heroic virtues as well as on the reputation of holiness and of signs of the Servant of God.
“In compliance with what is established by n. 11b of the Norms to be observed in Inquiries made by Bishops in the Causes of Saints, promulgated on February 7, 1983, by the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints, with the current Edict I make public the Supplex libellus of the Postulator and exhort all the faithful to provide me with useful information about the Cause.
“This information of all kinds, both personal and private, and an authentic photocopy of documents or letters, etc., can be transmitted to the Chancellor of this Diocese to the following address: Mrs. Tammy C. Basten, Chancellor, Diocese of Green Bay, P.O. Box 23825, Green Bay, WI 54305-3825.”
Mass concluded with a prayer to Adele by Bishop Ricken:
“God, our Father in heaven, you lift up the lowly and the meek of heart, to show your great mercy and power. With fervent devotion to the Mother of God, your servant, Adele Brice, sought to instruct the ignorant in what they needed to know for salvation. In imitation of her prompt obedience and simple faithfulness, may we do our part to work for the salvation of souls and pray for the conversion of sinners.
“Asking the intercession of your daughter Adele Brice, and if it be your will that she be honored on earth for your glory, we humbly beseech you to hear and answer our prayers. May we also ‘go and fear nothing’ with confidence in your care for us and the maternal protection of the Queen of Heaven.
“Amen.”