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Cardinal O'Connor on Addiction
Addiction
Cardinal talks not of censure of alcoholics and others, but 'how we
can help'
This is the text of Cardinal O'Connor's homily at Sunday Mass in St.
Patrick's Cathedral Sept. 26.
Every Good Friday in this cathedral we preach the Seven Last Words of
Jesus dying on the cross. Among the most poignant of these, it seems to
me, are the words, "I thirst." Perhaps those words do not
always get the attention that they should. Our Lord is virtually
screaming out, not simply for a drink because his throat or his mouth
was so parched but his whole being. His whole being had been emptied.
His whole being cried out for relief. His whole being undoubtedly cried
out for death. It had to have been a horrible moment.
Why do I refer to the above when today's Scriptures do not seem to be
applicable? Because throughout the Archdiocese of New York we have
declared this day "Recovery Sunday." In all our churches, 413
of our parishes, our priests are today preaching Recovery Sunday. What
do I mean by this? Some time back I received a very gracious and very
supportive letter from a Miss Therese Engel who is a social worker among
the poor. She pleaded with me to take more note of those with
addictions, whatever the addictions may be. Perhaps most common is
addiction to alcohol, followed closely by so many other drugs, perhaps
by an addiction to gambling, an addiction to sexual activity.
I wrote a letter to all of our priests. I will read just a portion of
that letter.
"I am writing to you about addictive illnesses. In all its forms,
the disease of addiction has painfully affected all our parish
communities for too many years. Who can deny this? It affects not only
the persons addicted but devastates marriages, families and children. It
drains the resources of Catholic Charities. It clogs our courts, crowds
our prisons and even more, pains the whole Mystical Body of Christ.
"Faced with this seemingly never-ending problem, the wonder is that
we have waited so long to declare this once-a-year Recovery Sunday and,
in humble desperation, turn it over to God and beg his divine help. Deep
in the heart of every priest there must be compassion for all who suffer
and are pained by any of these addictions. What better way to support
them than by a Prayer Day!"
I mean particularly those words at the heart of every priest--there must
be compassion. I do not want to talk in terms of censure. I want to talk
about how we can help. I do not address this simply to you with any kind
of implication that anyone here is troubled by addiction, conceivably
someone in your family is, someone you know is, but having our
consciousness raised, all of us, is of exceeding importance.
Thus far I have written three columns in our archdiocesan newspaper,
Catholic New York. I will continue to write on this subject from time to
time. Let me read you a portion of one of the columns which is called
"The Drug That Gets Away With Murder."
"This column is late; very late. It should have been written not
simply before the appearance of the New Year; it should have been
written and rewritten on the same theme years ago. Perhaps one person
would not have been killed or maimed by an automobile, one individual
might be walking tall instead of staggering through life in a stupor,
one couple not divorced, one family not wrecked.
"Many families, with good reason, fear mind-altering and addictive
drugs for their kids. 'Drugs' are thought of in the sinister terms of
Mafia and syndicates, ghetto corner deals and guns and knives and
murders and rapes. The country spends hundreds of millions of dollars in
international interdicts and jailing women pressured or seduced into
serving as 'drug mules.'
"There can be no question, drugs as we commonly think of them are
fearsome, pernicious, horrifyingly destructive. But a mind-altering,
mood-altering addictive drug too rarely thought of as a drug at all
receives far too little notice and literally gets away with murder:
alcohol. 'One for the road' seems to be as popular a prelude to a
farewell as it has ever been. Drunks and alcoholics are still good for a
laugh on television. Lovable likenesses of the marvelous Frank Fay still
introduce us whimsically to the Harveys who are real only in their own
alcoholic fogs. And lives are perverted and families shattered and
children terrified and innocent people killed by drunks.
"While still in the uniform of the naval services, I became very
much involved in drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programs.
Experience taught us a very simple definition of functional alcoholism.
If alcohol adversely affects your family, your job or your health, and
you still drink, consider yourself an alcoholic, even if you have never
had a 'Lost Weekend'...
"Alcoholics Anonymous has done a tremendous amount of good over the
years. Its teaching that we are 'as sick as our secrets' is uncannily
insightful and a wonderful measure of our sobriety. Alcoholics become
addictive liars, ultimately convincing even themselves that they haven't
had a drink in years!...There are a host of both psychological and
practical reasons for alcoholic duplicity, many worth probing and
understanding. But the reality itself stands, whatever the reasons. It
is one of the major problems a wife or husband of an alcoholic faces, a
problem that ultimately destroys all trust in a marriage, in a family.
"I have been remiss. Destructive drinking is so widespread a
phenomenon, alcoholism is so common a sickness, that I should have been
writing and preaching about it for years. We are sacred human persons,
every one of us, made in God's own image, modeled after the Lord. Abuse
of alcohol has twisted and distorted, sullied and violated that image
perhaps as much as has any other evil, possibly more.
"I will henceforth write periodically about the abuse of the drug
called alcohol..."
The second column reports from those who read the first column. Perhaps
some of the most gratifying letters I have ever received as Archbishop
of New York, pleading with me to continue doing so, telling me stories
that would shake anyone. I will read briefly from excerpts from some of
the letters.
"It is with great pleasure that I read your heartfelt remembrances
of the widespread problem of alcoholism...As an individual member of
Alcoholics Anonymous, I can only give you my opinion...I cannot speak
for the total membership.
"My prayers are with you to continue to speak about it in whatever
forum you choose...
"After I got sober in 1972, through AA, I was still rebellious at
the thought of returning to my Catholic upbringing. Fortunately God did
not allow that to continue. My sponsor, a Catholic, informed me that our
Big Book, which we affectionately call our volume "Alcoholics
Anonymous," stated in no uncertain terms, that if we belonged to a
church that had an appointed member to hear our fifth step in recovery
(confession), then that is the way to sobriety. I did a good confession
with the priest who was a recovering alcoholic too.
"I was not a very good practicing Catholic until about five years
ago. I was formally reconciled to the Catholic Church and now am a
practicing Catholic. I am still active in AA and take meetings and
ministry to local prisons as well as help 'counsel' others [with
alcoholic problems].
"Blessed are those who urge drunks to start back to God through
AA!"
A portion of another letter:
"As an adult child of two alcoholics I 'know' how destructive an
alcoholic is. I 'know' what this disease does to families. I spent many
years in therapy and Al-Anon...learning how to undo the damage this
disease causes to those whose lives have been immersed in this vicious
cycle...I believe that God is present at these meetings because his love
is in these rooms. My spiritual journey began in Al-Anon..."
There are many, many other letters but I will not take your time to read
them. I said, however, that this was not to censure those with
addictions. The reason that I began by reading the words of our Divine
Lord, "I thirst," is that it seems to me that those words have
to be so very, very familiar to those with problems of addiction
whatever the addiction may be, not simply a physical thirst, not simply
a thirst to get "high or drunk or gamble" or whatever. The
thirst that consumes their very beings as that thirst consumed the being
of Christ.
One of my favorite teachings of the Church is the teaching of the power
of suffering. Whether it be a tiny headache, a backache, our feet hurt,
we learn that we have cancer, we lose a loved one, a wife dies, a
husband, a child, we can unite that suffering with the sufferings of our
Divine Lord on the cross and help him in this fashion to continue the
work of redemption. Otherwise the suffering can become completely
wasted. We can include all those kinds of sufferings in his own words,
"I thirst."
I go to many, many funerals as do many of you, I am sure. I see the
terrible pain. Tomorrow there will be buried in one of our boroughs of
Staten Island almost an entire family killed without warning in an
automobile accident. This was a wonderful family, very helpful to the
parish, very good people. Only two little children remain, ages 6 and 9.
Imagine that kind of loss. We have all experienced loss. We have all
experienced that sense of emptiness that can be summarized in the words,
"I thirst." But perhaps we do not always remember that we can
help fulfill Christ's thirst for souls, we can help in the salvation of
souls, by uniting our suffering with his so that it is never wasted.
We have a priest here with us today, Father Dan Egan. Some of you know
Father. He is referred to usually as the "Junkie Priest," but
with great affection and great admiration. For most of the years of his
priesthood he has given himself to those with addictions. We are
approximately the same age. When he was a young man he used to roam the
streets of Times Square and that area in general looking for ways of
helping prostitutes, so many of them addicts to one form of drug or
another. God knows how many lives and souls Father Egan has saved in
that terribly difficult kind of work. He continues now. He serves in
nursing homes for AIDS victims and continues in his work in other forms
of addiction.
Father Egan refers to today's first reading in Ezekiel [Ez. 18:25-28] as
so descriptive of what those caught up in addictions experience, so much
confusion, so much good will, so much difficulty in turning that good
will into practice. Ezekiel said:
"You say, 'The Lord's way is not fair!' Hear now: Is it my way that
is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When a virtuous man
turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of
the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if a wicked man, turning
from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he
shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins
which he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die."
One of the columns that I have written thus far is "Never Give Up
on an Alcoholic." I know the torture, I know the suffering that
perhaps even some of you here have experienced. I know that it seems to
become impossible and certainly imprudent to permit an alcoholic to stay
in a family, acting so destructively toward children and to everyone
else. It is not for me to say that there should not be separations or
whatever may seem to be necessary for the preservation of peace and
order especially for the good of the children. But separations are quite
different from giving up. I am afraid that there are some who believe
that an addict is just impossible. There is nothing any longer that can
be done. This would defy our Divine Lord's own life. He came and poured
his life out for us because he knew that no one had to be lost, no one.
Everyone was within his reach. He left to his Almighty Father the
ultimate judgment, that however difficult it is, we must work, we must
pray, we must not forget, we must not blot someone out of our thoughts
and our minds.
I repeat. I understand the difficulties. I understand the torture. I
have had many, many who are victims come to talk with me. But if we can
hang on, hang on at least to the degree that we pray for the soul of the
one who we believe has betrayed us, we have at least not given up.
Finally, the organization which is called The National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has now done four
separate surveys and has found in each one that teens engaged in an
active religious life are less likely to use drugs, drink or smoke than
teens who are not. And they give figures which are truly startling. If,
therefore, you have teenagers, if you influence teenagers, if you are a
teacher or a parent, please keep that in mind. They follow your example.
To try to make this real, to try to make it helpful we have established
a hot line with various counselors and others who will be available. If
you would like to take with you today's bulletin, this is included. It
gives the number to call and the kind of response that you can expect.
Whether for your own family or for another, it could be a great kindness
if you would pass that on. This is truly widespread and devastating.
But to those with the problem themselves, we began by talking about our
Divine Lord's earlier words on the cross, "I thirst." How
very, very comforting his final words on the cross, "Father, into
your hands I commend my spirit." Then came perfect peace.
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