Knock Shrine, Co. Mayo The US’s official Marian apparition shrine can learn from Knock, the bishop responsible for the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help has said.
Green Bay’s Bishop David Ricken, who visited the Mayo shrine this week as part of a diocesan pilgrimage to Ireland, told The Irish Catholic that the shrine at Champion, Wisconsin is several decades behind Knock in terms of repute and organisational infrastructure.
“Even though our apparition happened in 1859, as far as organisation and being a well-oiled machine we’re a way behind, but that’s okay: we can learn a lot from them,” he said, explaining that he hoped to speak to organisers at Knock, “just to make sure we have the right structure and that we’re doing things properly to help the Blessed Mother reach out to many people”.
Walt Fountain, who chairs the US shrine’s Board of Trustees and who visited Knock this summer, said responses to the shrines have been strikingly similar, but that Champion’s reputation had – until it was formally authenticated in 2010 – grown very slowly.
“We have plans to grow the infrastructure, to be able to support about five times as many pilgrims as we get now,” he told The Irish Catholic.