Aa history Lovers 2009 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page
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Roman Catholic priest to get sober in AA, and was one of the four most published AA authors. See http://www.nccatoday.org/ Each year the council has a national conference, and publishes the texts of all the speeches in a volume called the Blue Book.
NCCA's 2008 Conference in New Orleans) is now available for distribution.
well known figures. There are talks not only by Bill Wilson, but also Marty Mann, Father Ed Dowling, and many other people. The best place to find copies of this series would be in the library at a Catholic university or seminary. The Indianapolis Archdiocesan Archives has a partial set, but there are also some volumes missing.
Alcoholism, today called the National Catholic Council on Alcoholism and Related Drug Problems, one of the most vital and important American Catholic organizations dealing with the problem of alcoholism. The NCCA's annual publication, the Blue Book (whose 58th volume came out at the end of 2008), also provides, through a host of articles by leading figures, a detailed historical record of Catholic thought about alcoholism and recovery through the course of the past six decades. There is no body of literature even remotely equivalent coming from Protestant or Jewish sources during that period. National Catholic Council on Alcoholism: The NCCA honors Fr. Ralph Pfau as its
great founder. The NCCA leader Monsignor William J. Clausen quoted from a talk
which Ralph gave in 1957 in an account he gave of how the group was created: 'In talking to Father Dowling in St. Louis in 1948, Father Pfau said: "You know
. . . it would be a nice thing if we could find out who else among the clergy
are in AA, because I think that priests in AA feel the need to know if there are
other priests in AA," Father Dowling suggested, "Why don't you have a retreat of some kind?"'
discussion among four priests eating hot fudge sundaes at an Indiana soda shop in 1949,” Ralph Pfau, John Dillon, Raymond Atkins, and John C. Ford. Ralph gave special credit to Fr. Dillon in particular in the foreword to the first Blue Book (the volume published by the NCCA every year, containing the text of the talks given at that year’s conference). We should also note the reference to four important bishops and archbishops, about which we will comment further along:
Alcoholics Anonymous were made by Fr. Ralph Pfau of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Fr. John Dillon of the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana .... From Aug. 23 to 25, 1949, more than 100 priests gathered at St. Joseph’s college, Rensselaer, Indiana. Their Excellencies, Archbishop Schulte, Bishop Bennett, and Bishop Cody (representing Archbishop Ritter) were in attendance."
called the National Clergy Council (and/or Conference) on Alcoholism, it is now referred to as the “National Catholic Council on Alcoholism and Related Drug Problems, Inc.” In 2008 it became a service arm of Guest House (the treatment center for Catholic clergy and religious), using Guest House’s Lake Orion, Michigan, address.
Book was being written, the A.A. group had only one Catholic member whom we know of — at least in Akron or the New York area — an Irishman named Morgan Ryan from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, who had just gotten out of the asylum and had not participated in the actual writing of the book. Morgan gave one of the multilithed manuscript copies to the Catholic Committee on Publications of the Archdiocese of New York, which gave it a positive review. But this small committee certainly did not speak for the Catholic Church as a whole. Later on,
Bill Wilson became friends with Monsignor Fulton Sheen. But Sheen, even though
a popular radio (and later television) figure, could not have spoken for (or influenced the opinions of) the Catholic hierarchy vis-à-vis the young A.A. movement.
A.A. literature tries to give the impression of warm and widespread Catholic support for Alcoholics Anonymous from the beginning, in fact there were some members of the Catholic hierarchy who were strongly opposed to A.A. Cardinal McIntyre in Los Angeles, for example, told Fr. John Ford that he would not allow
him to speak at the 3rd A.A. International which was to be held in Long Beach,
California, in 1960. Fr. Ed Dowling said that when he wrote the Cardinal asking
whether he would be permitted to speak, McIntyre wrote back saying that he would
allow him to do so since he was not an alcoholic, but only provided that he follow the ideas set out in the pamphlet “Help Your Alcoholic Friend” by Rev. William Kenneally. In his letter to Fr. Dowling, Cardinal McIntyre said that he did not want an alcoholic priest talking; and that he objected to the disease theory of A.A. James Cardinal McIntyre, who was Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1948 until 1978,
was an arch-traditionalist, as we know, who later deeply opposed many of the changes made by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), especially the changes in the liturgy (after he retired as archbishop and took on the duties of a parish priest at St. Basil's Church in downtown Los Angeles, he celebrated the
old Tridentine Mass on its side altars as a rebellion against the new liturgy). Fr. Ralph brought in Archbishops Ritter and Schulte to support A.A.: But Fr. Ralph was a superb ecclesiastical politician, who managed to get some other very powerful members of the hierarchy on the A.A. side. He served under three bishops in Indianapolis: Bishop Joseph Chartrand, who had died in 1933, but more importantly, Bishop/Archbishop Joseph Ritter (1934-1946) and Archbishop Paul Schulte (1946-1970).
parish
duties at Holy Cross parish in Indianapolis, and had given him a special mission
where he was allowed to spend his full time as a priest working with A.A. The
archbishop also inscribed his official Imprimatur on the inside front page of Fr. Ralph’s first three Golden Books: The Spiritual Side (1947), Tolerance (orig. titled Charity, 1948), and Attitudes (1949). By appearing at the first meeting of the NCCA, Archbishop Schulte helped give
the participants confidence that important members of the hierarchy would give
them backing in their mission. Archbishop Ritter had been transferred to St. Louis in 1946, three years after
Ralph got sober, but had been impressed so favorably by the young priest, and
how his life had been turned around by A.A., that he sent his then Auxiliary Bishop, John Cody, to represent him and convey his blessings also upon the NCCA. Ritter was later one of the leading reformist bishops at the Second Vatican Council in 1962–1965, and a very powerful and respected figure in the American
Catholic hierarchy. (Cody was not a negligible figure himself. He later became Archbishop of Chicago and a Cardinal, of course, and although he eventually became involved in a good deal of controversy and strife, he was nevertheless an important figure within the hierarchy to have on one’s side.) We should give adequate recognition to what Fr. Pfau accomplished in starting
the NCCA (and keeping it going), and in bringing in extremely high-powered ecclesiastical supporters, by the power of his charm and hard work, to support the organization. A.A. was certainly not going to be automatically accepted by the Catholic Church, once theologians and bishops began looking carefully at its principles, and could easily have ended up being officially condemned by a combination of moralistic and authoritarian forces within the church. But Ralph
got a number of powerful figures supporting the A.A. cause. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 5884. . . . . . . . . . . . Development of the Twelve Concepts Window Shade From: wrdjock . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/25/2009 7:51:00 AM
Twelve
Concepts Window shade? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 5885. . . . . . . . . . . . Information about Bernard B. Smith From: wrdjock . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/25/2009 7:05:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I'm looking for information about Bernard B. Smith for a research project on the History of the Concepts. Bill refers to him as an architect of the "service structure" and I'm interested in finding out more about what specific contributions he made. Does anyone know if a biography on him was ever done?
Tradition Five in the 12 and 12 From: Tom V . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/24/2009 2:57:00 PM
period, Morgan Ryan, who was the only Roman Catholic AA member at the time the Big Book was published, had an obviously Irish last name.
on Tradition Five in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp. 151-154?
Silkworth indicated as someone who might be a possible candidate for the A.A. program.
defined
From: J. Lobdell . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/21/2009 5:20:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi! Arthur As you point out, the Conference-approved pamphlet "The Group" says that "The main difference between meetings and groups is that A.A. groups generally continue to exist outside the prescribed meeting hours, ready to provide Twelfth
Step help when needed. A.A. groups are encouraged to register with G.S.O., as well as with their local offices: area, district, intergroup or central office." As I understand it, the means for existing outside of "meeting hours" -- that is, to be more than simply a meeting -- is to have the service structure suggested in that pamphlet, and to link with Intergroup (by means of an Intergroup Representative) and with the General Service Structure (by means of a GSR). Hence my statement that the creation of the service structure leads to a quick test of what's a group and what's a meeting. I did not say that was AA's view -- as you well know, neither I (having studied AA) nor you (having studied AA and being an active member of the General Service Structure, as you say) can speak for AA. The "Twelve Concepts" may not be ambiguous, but the "Twelve Concepts" plus "The Group" pamphlet seem to present a certain degree of ambiguity (see also Jack Norris's attempt to distinguish between special-purpose groups, which may suffer from the "other affiliations" problem, and special-purpose meetings). I remained convinced that, if there is to be a distinction between a group and a meeting, it must lie in participation in the service structure, and the quickest test is whether there is a GSR or could be if requirements ("suggestions") for selection as GSR can be met. Of course, if a group which has two meetings says each one is a separate group, and claims the right therefore to two GSRs, presumably General Service must go along with it (I know an example in Area 59, District 36). Yes, a group is a group if it says it's a group, if you like -- that's the historical precedent, with which we as historians are concerned -- but the proof (another historical precedent for much of AA) is in the action. If it acts like a group, it's a group. If it doesn't, what's the point of saying it is one? And btw, if there are no home-group members, what is it that's a group? [P.S. -- I think NA refers to a GR, tho' here I speak under correction.]-- Jared
Smith
From: firsthings1st . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/25/2009 3:24:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "wrdjock" > > I'm looking for information about Bernard B. > Smith for a research project on the History > of the Concepts. Bill refers to him as an > architect of the "service structure" and I'm > interested in finding out more about what > specific contributions he made. Does anyone > know if a biography on him was ever done? > Bernard B. Smith (1901 - 1970) The AA General Service Board was still called the Alcoholic Foundation when he joined it, in June 1944. His advice influenced the decision to hold the first General Service Conference, in 1951. Chairman of the Board and the Conference from January 1951 to April 1956, he was serving as first vice-chairman of the Board at the time of his death. He was an attorney, an author, and an advocate of Anglo-American understanding; for his efforts in that cause, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him a decoration. Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in October 1957. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 5889. . . . . . . . . . . . First Group in Vermont and Hawaii From: jax760 . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/22/2009 6:44:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Vermont and Hawaii, from John B. ("jax760") and E.G. ("spaberlejr") - - - - From: "jax760" (jax760 at yahoo.com) January 1945 Grapevine Article - Granite Vermont Opens it Heart to AA "Joe" moved up to Vermont from New Jersey and started a group in Montpelier in October of 1944. God Bless John B - - - - From: "spaberlejr" (saberle at comcast.net) I just came across the 1st meeting in Hawaii while perusing the digital archives of the Grapevine:
"Central Office Notes" - - - - Dec. 14, 1943 Shop----, Pearl Harbor Dear ----: You may definitely stick a pin in Honolulu on your map. Tonight we had a meeting
of the entire group for the first time. There were supposed to be 7--but only 5
came. All have been sober with the help of the A.A. program for a time varying
from over a month to 1 week before their first meeting. The meeting was so interesting to everyone we had trouble leaving in time to get home before curfew. And not bragging (much) I don't think there are any more intelligent 5 people in Honolulu who meet as a group than we had there tonight. . .One reason that I am so optimistic about our little group is that every one of them sought the help. There has been no evangelism, no compulsion. All of us really want to quit. . .Please don't think you're presuming to give me advice. We have not been able to contact any old members here. If ever there was a place where the blind are leading the blind, that place is Honolulu right now. We not only will accept any advice you care to give, we're begging for it. . .I have had several bitter disappointments. . .I have discovered that a desire to stop and mere knowledge of the program of A.A. are not enough. It is those of us who are really trying to put into practise the 12 steps who are succeeding. Now that we are holding meetings I feel sure that more of us will be able to put them into practise. About my own case. I have for years considered myself an agnostic. After reading
the A.A. literature, especially the part about an alcoholic who wanted to get
well not being able to afford the luxury of a closed mind, I began asking myself
what I really believed. The more I thought and worked with others the nearer to faith I came. . .The psychiatric social worker at--Hospital, who has been trying to help me since July to quit drinking has remarked at the great change in me since I became acquainted with A.A. When I told her of my new source of strength she suggested that maybe that strength had been lying latent in me all along. I told her I didn't really know what the source of strength was, but that I did know the formula I had used to tap it, and that was humble, sincere, unselfish prayer. . . Yours in A.A., E.G. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 5891. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Information about Bernard B. Smith
From: wrdjock . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/25/2009 5:04:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Thanks for the info. I have the capsule version of his life. I'm looking for more in-depth information.
General Service Conference? What were his thoughts? Did he have any writings which could be examined? He was also present and chairman during the period when Bill W was writing the concepts. Did he review the essays and provide advice to Bill?
a young lawyer in his law firm and that Mr. Smith had him help Bill with some of the legal aspects of the Concepts. Does anyone know if that is correct? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 5892. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: First Group in Vermont From: J. Lobdell . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2009 9:36:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII "Joe" is Joe F, of F------- Insurance. I have a copy of a letter he wrote to the guys out in Minnesota about getting Bill to one of the Camp Karephree Founders' Week celebrations, I think 1944 or 1945 (it's stuck in a book somewhere), including hiring a private plane. I think the original is in the Nicollet collections. I'd be glad to hear from anyone who has anything else on Joe F.
Minnesota, provided by Archivist Jim D. (Holt, Michigan) and the Lansing Archives. The four Founders Day Camping Trips held in Minnesota and organized by the Nicollet Group during the summers of 1944, 45, 46, and 47 brought together a number of well known early A.A. figures, including not only Dr. Bob but also many other early A.A. leaders from various midwestern cities. http://hindsfoot.org/mnfound1.html http://hindsfoot.org/mnfound2.html - - - - > From: "jax760" > (jax760 at yahoo.com) > > January 1945 Grapevine Article - Granite Vermont > Opens it Heart to AA > > "Joe" moved up to Vermont from New Jersey and > started a group in Montpelier in October of 1944. > > God Bless > > John B
++++Message 5893. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Development of the Twelve Concepts Window Shade From: Jocelyn . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/25/2009 8:03:00 PM
From: John Pine . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/25/2009 4:43:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The UK A.A. site http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/geninfo/13history.htm tells this story:
London's
Dorchester Hotel. Grace O, an American AA, visiting London had been asked by GSO in New York to contact several people in Britain who wanted information about AA. Amongst them were Chris B, probably the first person in England to use AA to attain sobriety, 'Canadian' Bob B, an American serviceman Sergeant Vernon W, and Norman R-W, who was still drinking. The meeting was held in Room 202 of the hotel at 8 p.m. on Monday 31st March 1947. Others attending the meeting were Tony F, an Irish airman, Flash W, an American and Pat G, a female member from California whom Grace had met on the voyage. In the same way that early American meetings had been held in members' homes meetings were held in Canadian Bob's house in Mortlake Road, Kew Gardens as Yüklə 11,49 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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