I’m what you might call a “12-step junkie”— I can’t seem to stop going to meetings. You name it, I’ve probably got a seat there. But here’s the twist: these programs didn’t just help me recover from various addictions and compulsions. They taught me how to be Catholic.
When I was first introduced to Catholic teaching during catechesis later in adulthood, I was surprised by the parallels to the 12 steps. The correspondence only strengthened as I learned more in later years. Since Bill Wilson, the founder of the first 12-step program, did not want to scare away atheists or agnostics, he invoked “a God as I understand him” in the 12 Steps. Let the Higher Power be whatever meets one’s needs — as one wiseacre remarked, “I’ll let the coffee pot on the table there be my Higher Power.”
LISTEN: Catholic in Recovery: Discussing Addiction and Faith With Scott Weeman
Among the over 200 12-step programs, there is one for almost every kind of addiction or unhealthy behavior, including: Skin-pickers Anonymous, Under-Earners Anonymous, Nar-anon (families of drug addicts), Gamblers Anonymous, and of course the original, Alcoholics Anonymous. Despite the multiplicity, the 12-step principles are much the same for all.
These principles were laid down by Bill Wilson (known as Bill W. to 12-steppers) following the birth of the program on June 10, 1935. Although every program emphasizes that the 12 Steps require a spiritual (not religious) commitment, they are, as I learned, synergistic with Catholic teaching. The 12 Steps lead to a spiritual journey of surrender, self-discovery, restitution, and service that parallels the road to grace and salvation provided by the Catholic Church these last 2,000 years.
The 12 Steps progress in four sections, each step building on the preceding. The first three are about surrender: “I can’t, God can, I’ll let him do it.” Steps four through seven relate to honest and searching self-examination and removal of character defects: ”I face it, I say it, I’m ready to change it.” Steps eight and nine have to do with making amends and restitution: “I list it, I make it right.” Steps 10 through 12 give directions for maintaining recovery and reaching out to help other addicts: “I keep it, I nurture it, I give it away.”
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Here is how the 12 Steps and Catholic Teaching work together. The first three surrender steps are embodied in St. Augustine’s famous maxim: “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.” These steps reflect the virtues of humility, faith and hope. Caussade’s classic “Abandonment to Divine Providence” and St. Alphonse Liguori’s “Uniformity with God’s Will” give the same message. In short: “I accept God’s will.”
The self-examination steps ( four through seven), where participants are encouraged to share their shame, correlate with the Sacrament of Reconciliation and purgative prayer. The person to whom one tells his faults is the priest, as Persona Christi. Shame is transformed to grace, as in Step 5. In short: “I confess and ask God’s forgiveness.”
Steps eight and nine (making amends) echo the Catholic theology of penance, making restitution and forgiveness (to others and ourselves). A line in the Litany of Trust expresses it well: “That You give me the grace to accept forgiveness and to forgive others; Jesus I trust in You.” In short: “I make restitution.”
LISTEN: Confessing an Addiction
Maintenance and apostleship, the message of 10 ten through 12, is basic Catholic teaching. In the nightly examen prayer we reflect on what happened during the day: How did Jesus make his presence known, did we do his will? The Church also requires us to evangelize. In his 1965 decree, The Apostolate of the Laity, Pope Paul VI challenged Catholics to be active in spreading the message of Christ, which is also how the message of the 12 Steps is spread: by addicts reaching out to others. In short: “I do His will; I carry the message.”
Knowing this correspondence between Catholic teaching and 12-step precepts, I wondered, is there any way to bring them together in a unified practice? I needed meetings where the Higher Power was acknowledged to be the Holy Trinity – meetings where we were led on the recovery road by Jesus Christ — his footsteps in the sand beside us, and when we couldn’t walk, carrying us. After 30 years in 12-step programs, I found what I needed. Two organizations existed that put 12-step principles into a Catholic setting, The Calix Society and Catholic in Recovery. The organizations differ in scope and organization. The Calix Society is directed mainly to alcoholics and drug addicts and their loved ones.Catholic In Recovery has a more general audience, with meetings directed to a variety of different addictions. Both work through in-person and online meetings.
In the meetings I’ve attended, the connection to Catholic Teaching and the 12 Steps has been made explicit through stories of conversion and reversion, book discussions, and Lectio Divina. I’ve heard heart-breaking stories — rejection by spouses, jail sentences, medical consequences — that have helped me acquire the Christian virtues of compassion and caritas. As a sponsor, sponsee, and 1-Step friend, I have learned how to be the good neighbor that Christ calls us to be in following him. In short, the 12 Steps have taught me how to be a Catholic, not only in name, but in how I live.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, call Samhsa’s free and confidential national help line 1-800-662-HELP (4357). To find an Alcoholics Anonymous program near you, visit aa.org.
