Dubious Veneration: Questioning the Adele Brice Canonization Inquiry
The Catholic News Agency portal (January 5, 2026) reports that “Bishop” David Ricken of Green Bay has initiated a diocesan inquiry into the life of Adele Brice, a 19th-century Belgian immigrant associated with alleged Marian apparitions in Champion, Wisconsin. The article claims Brice received Church-approved apparitions in 1859, where a figure identifying as the “Queen of Heaven” instructed her to teach children catechism and promote penance for sinners. The inquiry seeks testimonies for Brice’s beatification, citing two alleged miracles: a woman’s recovery from depression and a man’s cancer remission. The shrine was designated an “approved apparition site” in 2022 by Vatican authorities, and Brice’s cause gained momentum after the U.S. “bishops” endorsed it in 2024.
Naturalizing the Supernatural: A Modernist Distortion of Apparition Discernment
The uncritical promotion of Brice’s visions exemplifies the conciliar sect’s abandonment of prudentiae ecclesiasticae (ecclesiastical prudence). True Catholic tradition, as defined by Pope Benedict XIV in De Servorum Dei Beatificatione, demands rigorous scrutiny of private revelations to ensure they align with unchanging doctrine and exhibit no trace of theological error or diabolical deception. The article’s assertion that the Vatican “approved” these apparitions in 2022 is meaningless, as the post-conciliar apparatus lacks divine authority to authenticate supernatural phenomena. Pius XII warned in Humani Generis (1950) that modernism reduces revelation to “subjective religious experience,” precisely the error here: Brice’s messages—while superficially orthodox—are exploited to legitimize the neo-church’s anthropocentric focus on “evangelization” divorced from dogmatic certainty.
“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 instruction, attributed to the apparition, omits the necessity of professing the Catholic Faith in its entirety—a silence deafening in an age of ecumenical apostasy. Contrast this with Our Lady of La Salette’s 1846 condemnation of liberal clergy (“The priests have become cesspools of impurity… they will be cursed as they walk”), a message suppressed by modernists for its doctrinal clarity. Brice’s nondescript call for “conversion” aligns dangerously with the conciliar sect’s relativistic view of salvation, condemned by Pius IX in Syllabus Errorum (Proposition 17) as the heresy that “good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not in the true Church of Christ.”
Illicit Authority: The Canonization Process as Ecclesial Theater
The inquiry presided over by “Bishop” Ricken is canonically invalid. St. Robert Bellarmine’s De Romano Pontifice establishes that manifest heretics—including those adhering to Vatican II’s religious liberty (contrary to Quanta Cura)—forfeit jurisdiction. Ricken, appointed under John Paul II’s apostate regime, has no power to initiate causes of beatification. True canonizations require the Church’s infallible judgment (Pope Benedict XIV, 1743), impossible while usurpers occupy Rome. The alleged miracles cited—psychological healing and cancer remission—are evaluated using post-conciliar criteria that ignore miracula stricte dicta (miracles proper): instantaneous, scientifically inexplicable events confirming supernatural intervention. The cancer “miracle” lacks documented immediacy, resembling Protestant “faith healing” spectacles rather than the miraculous cures of Lourdes authenticated by the pre-1958 Medical Bureau.
Omissions Exposing Apostasy: Silence on Doctrine and the Primacy of Christ the King
The article extols Brice’s “dedication to evangelization” while suppressing her doctrinal content. What catechism did she teach? The Roman Catechism of Trent? Or the ambiguous 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church, which obscures hell (CCC 1037) and promotes false ecumenism (CCC 819)? The apparition’s reported words—“my Son will be obliged to punish [sinners]”—are neutered into a motivational slogan for the shrine’s 200,000 annual pilgrims. Contrast this with the Quas Primas encyclical (1925), where Pius XI instituted Christ the King’s feast to combat secularism, proclaiming: “When once men recognize… that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace, and harmony.” Brice’s narrative, however, reduces the Queen of Heaven to a promoter of vague spirituality, ignoring Her eternal role as Turris Davidica (Tower of David) against heresy.
The Peshtigo Fire Miracle: Syncretism Over Substance
The shrine’s defining miracle—the 1871 Peshtigo Fire sparing its grounds—is presented as proof of divine favor. Yet the article omits the doctrinal conditions for such events. True miracles confirm doctrina catholica, not interfaith sentiment. The fire’s survivors included people of unknown faith, and today’s shrine hosts ecumenical gatherings, betraying the extra Ecclesiam nulla salus dogma. Where are the calls to convert non-Catholics, as demanded by Our Lady of Fatima (though we reject the Fatima narrative as Masonic)? Instead, the shrine’s “peace” and “simplicity” are marketed like New Age retreats—a desacralization Pius X condemned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) as the modernist reduction of faith to “sentiment religieux” (religious feeling).
Conclusion: A Canonization Cause Serving the Counter-Church
Adele Brice’s cause advances the conciliar sect’s naturalization of holiness. By canonizing figures associated with ambiguous messages, the neo-church fabricates a pseudo-tradition to legitimize its apostasy. True saints—like those canonized by Pius XII—defended doctrinal precision (e.g., St. Pius X against modernism) and suffered persecution from worldly powers. Until the Roman usurpers repent and restore the lex orandi of the Tridentine Mass, no act of theirs holds spiritual validity. As St. Vincent of Lérins taught: “quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditum est” (what has been believed always, everywhere, by all). Brice’s cult, unknown for centuries and now promoted by heretics, fails this test utterly.
Source:
Bishop Ricken announces formal inquiry into life of Servant of God Adele Brice (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 05.01.2026