The December 24 issue of the New York Times gives front-page coverage to the news that Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay has confirmed the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at a shrine in Champion, Wisconsin.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help—described accurately by the Times as “a little chapel among the dairy farms”—has now joined the company of famous Marian shrines in Lourdes, Fatima, and elsewhere, the Times notes.

Since Bishop Rickens issued his December 8 statement to “declare with moral certainty” that the apparitions reported there in 1859 were “of supernatural character,” the Champion shrine has become the first in the United States, and one of only a handful in the world, certified by the Church as the site of a Marian appearance.

The message of Our Lady to Sister Adele Brise on October 9, 1859 comes in two parts: offering communion for the conversion of sinners and teaching the catechism to the children.