Hope in Christ:
Spiritual Support for Addiction
“I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.”
~ Jeremiah 33:6
You are not alone! The Church desires to be close to her children who are struggling with addiction and to bring them the healing power of Jesus Christ’s love. The resources below are for those who have an addiction as well as for their families and loved ones. You will find one-time events such as retreats and evenings of reflection, ongoing support ministries, and links to websites, articles and videos. They are offered as spiritual support for you and your loved ones to assist you in experiencing the extended hand that Jesus Christ is holding out to you. If you have questions or suggestions for this page, please contact us at [email protected].
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- For clinical and social service resources such as local treatment facilities, AA, NA and Al-Anon groups, insurance information, crisis support, and other services, visit our Catholic Social Services website RecoveryAndHope.org.
Use these resources to tell others about this page:
Hope in Christ flyer – Hope in Christ web banner – Banner for Narthex Monitors – Bulletin Ad (1/4 page) – Social Media Square – Letter from the Archdiocese
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Personal Testimonies
Here you will find testimonies from local Catholics about their struggle with addiction and the gift that their Catholic faith is along the journey. We are thankful to those who are willing to share their story with us to help bring understanding, light and hope to others! If you would like to share your (anonymous) story for this website, please click here.
Click on a statement below to read the full testimony.
...There is hope! My son is now clean from heroin for over a year and...
How did your struggle with addiction begin?
Two of my children went down the dangerous path of drug addiction when they were in their teens and twenties. It has been a nightmare, and the consequences unimaginable. Not the hopes and dreams I had for them when they were “little and innocent.” They are now in their mid-to-late thirties. I am writing this to give hope to other families whose loved ones are struggling with this disease. There is hope! My son is now clean from heroin for over a year and going strong. Someone who knows his good and true potential gave him an opportunity for a really good job and he feels human again! He finally has his own place, is independent and engaging in a healthy way with his son, being the father he always wanted to be. Words cannot describe the transformation and there is no explanation other than God’s grace. My daughter is not there yet. She has suffered greatly with repeated imprisonments, sepsis and open heart surgery from dirty needles, and congestive heart failure as a result. But she has said, “don’t give up on me yet!”
I will never give up, I will always have hope because miracles can and do happen.
In your time of suffering, what do you need from the Church? How can we support you?
Sometimes, unintentionally I think, some church leaders in their talks or homilies speak in a degrading way about addicts, especially drug addicts. It could be some minor reference, but words matter. This perpetuates the pain, shame and stigma not only for the addicts themselves but for their families in the pews. There needs to be more compassion. Also, Catholic business leaders and employers need to look at the whole person, not just a sheet of paper. Far too many people look at this as a moral choice rather than a disease. These are human beings– persons with dignity– and should eventually be given a chance at dignified work and not just minimum wage jobs where they cannot support themselves or their families…. that has the potential to make them give up and end up back in a broken system that affects all of us in some way. You may be amazed at the wisdom and life experience of those who have finally found recovery.
How has your Catholic faith helped you in your journey toward recovery? What devotions, practices and aspects of your Catholic faith have helped the most?
My Catholic faith has meant everything to me in my journey toward recovery from all of the trauma. Jesus was with me the night my daughter overdosed in my home and I was doing CPR on her until help arrived. He has been with me in the waiting room of hospitals, institutions and prisons. I know there is a purpose to all the suffering and pain we endure because of the Cross. And to all my dear fellow Catholics in prayer groups and at church who have prayed with me and given much-needed shoulders to cry on once in awhile– I am grateful.
What encouragement would you offer to others who are struggling with addiction about the role that your Catholic faith can play in healing and recovery?
The twelve step process and the Nar-Anon groups helped me a great deal. It gave me a non-judgmental place where I could open up and learn to focus more on myself in a healthy way, rather than continually obsess about my addicted son and daughter. While it’s not Catholic, the twelve steps were founded upon Ignatian spirituality and I think that’s where they get their power— from our relationship with God. I still don’t know if my daughter will survive her addiction, but I have finally come to a place of peace where I can accept that– because I know in the deepest part of my soul that God loves her even more than I do.
I began by stealing beer from my Dad's basement fridge...
How did your struggle with addiction begin?
I began by stealing beer from my Dad’s basement fridge, to impress my older brother so he’d want to hang out with me. I later learned of the “youngest male syndrome,” which has helped me quite a bit.
In your time of suffering, what do you need from the Church?
Preach more about constructive use of our free will, individual accountability and responsibility. I was reared without anyone informing me that, “Mankind is not the author of all our own thoughts.” I never knew that temptation strikes as an idea or a feeling– and that preemptively taking action such as confession, fasting, prayer and adoration of Our Lord is necessary to prevent excessively harmful thoughts or feelings (temptation) from setting up shop inside my head. Teachers and parents blamed themselves and taught me to do the same, which caused many wasted years not recognizing the true assailant who strikes at us all.
How has your Catholic faith helped you in your journey toward recovery? What devotions, practices, and aspects of your Catholic faith have helped most?
Its tricky to never give up on a man without enabling or making allowances for his mis-use of his own free will, but a full time priest assigned to the State Correctional Institution at Rockview, Fr. Bill Crouse, was the bulkhead that held. Picture a ship at sea that hits an iceberg, punctures the hull and the water rushes past any number of open co-dependent hatches and doorways until one door, the right door, is closed. Please make sure we have enough priests in prisons. I’m off parole now, and clean & sober for over 20 years. It began with a door that was closed.
What encouragement would you offer to others who are struggling with addiction about the role that your Catholic faith can play in healing and recovery?
Adam failed Eve; Saint Peter failed Christ; Christ himself fell 3 times to show us how to get back up. Don’t listen to the voice that tells you virtue’s not in your making. It is; we’re all created by virtue, for virtue … by love for love. Recite the 10 commandments and the 7 lively virtues daily; learn them first in order to make an honest effort at living them. Without understanding the 7 lively virtues as the balm to heal the 7 deadly sins its rough going out there.
My daughter became addicted to pills the last two weeks of her senior year...
How did your struggle with addiction begin?
My daughter became addicted to pills the last two weeks of her senior year in a Catholic high school. She struggled with mental illness throughout middle school and high school. The doctors medicated her for many years, but the medications never helped. Her prescription pills became a form of self-medication. When she took them, she finally experienced relief from her mental illness after suffering for so long with no reprieve. As is the case with most, when she became addicted to the pills and they became too expensive, she turned to heroin which is much cheaper.
In your time of suffering, what do you need from the Church?
Our entire family suffered tremendously. What we needed most was love, acceptance, and support. We needed to be set free of the shame, blame, and guilt, and we needed a support network — our Church — to be there in the darkest times of our lives. There were times we would have loved a meal or a note of support. There were other times that we could have used help babysitting our grandchild (as we struggled to care for him when our daughter was in the hospital and/or treatment). There were many, many times we would have appreciated help driving her to her various appointments as she tried to recover. The system doesn’t make it easy. Lots of appointments, etc. in early recovery, and she needed so many things to get back on her feet, clothes, haircuts, etc. The list goes on and on. They are small things, but they become overwhelming, and with the help of others these small burdens that added up to a huge weight, could have been made much lighter by the help of the Church.
How has your Catholic faith helped you in your journey toward recovery?
It’s been many years, and there have been many practices throughout. Daily Mass, the Divine Office, the rosary, and more . . . But times like these really bring you to your knees, unable to think or recite prayers or feel anything except deep pain. For that, nothing was more comforting than quiet meditation before the crucifix where I came to understand at a much deeper level that Jesus too experienced all of this. Contemplation on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus helped me to understand my faith and my circumstances better. I came to know the blessing in the curse and to believe that perhaps some good can come out of all this; the resurrection after the crucifixion. My Catholic faith brought me the gift of eternal hope in the midst of despair.
What encouragement would you offer to others who are struggling with addiction about the role that your Catholic faith can play in healing and recovery?
I would encourage people to dig deeper into their faith. Faith doesn’t necessarily mean that you feel good, but our Catholic faith provides us with a great examples, promise, and hope. The Bible is filled with angst! Perhaps start with the psalms or the gospels, but wherever you start, read it “from below.” Read it from the voices of the people who wrote it and experienced all of the despair — on earth. Listen to them as they cry out to God. Walk with Jesus as he advocated for the oppressed and ashamed. Imitate him. When you are suffering and it feels like agony, sit with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And when you feel hopeless, contemplate the resurrection and remember all the good that came that no one would have believed when Jesus was being crucified. We are not alone. God is there and has been throughout history as people struggled with the real difficulties of life. He is there even if it doesn’t feel like we thought or hoped it would feel. Most important, reach out for help, and help others. Once we have received the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, we must share them! The Spirit dwells in us and works through us, and the Spirit wants to be set free to love. We then become the Mystical Body of Christ on earth, and we emanate a bright healing light in the midst of the darkness, and a hope that “baffles the world.”
I have 3 adult children, two of whom are addicts...
How did your struggle with addiction begin?
I have 3 adult children, two of whom are addicts. My oldest daughter became addicted to Adderall her senior year of college. 12 years have passed, and her addiction to prescription drugs has cost her custody of her two daughters, her sanity, and her ability to work and hold a job. She also has a criminal record for forging a prescription for Adderall.
My son became addicted to heroin when he was 21. He has been in and out of prison several times for stealing things in order to buy more heroin. He is now 33 and in treatment for about the 7th time. His addiction has cost him his family, his home, his finances and his ability to be hired for a decent job.
I am grateful they are both still alive but it has been devastating to witness the effect of addiction on their lives and on their children who love them very much.
In your time of suffering, what do you need from the Church? How can we support you?
For many years, I attended 12 step meetings for families of addicts. There is much pain and suffering in those rooms as mostly parents are confused about how to deal with the heartbreak and fear of possibly losing their children to an overdose. I have often thought… why is the Church so silent or seemingly ignoring the painful experience of so many of her families in the pews? Just to have the Church acknowledge and speak about the problem… address it as the disease it is and help dispel the shame that keeps addicts and their families from getting it in the open and finding healing. I think too– that people need to be more aware of how many of our prisons are full of people suffering from the terrible disease of addiction… and how difficult it is to live with…. I have witnessed awful injustice in many employers not giving someone a second chance even when they have been clean and stayed out of trouble for several years… because of a past criminal record. I think the Church could do more to increase awareness and help foster mercy in our culture.
How has your Catholic faith helped you in your journey toward recovery? What devotions, practices and aspects of your Catholic faith have helped the most?
My Catholic faith has helped me hold on to hope in the midst of the destructive storm of addiction. Being close to Jesus in the Eucharist… Holy hours and Adoration…. the sacrament of Reconciliation with a priest who is a good and non-judgmental listener… all of these things have kept my faith alive. Also the Communion of Saints and knowing that I have friends in heaven who are praying for me and the addicts in my life. Being connected to other Catholics who are strong believers and pray with and for my family has been a tremendous source of strength.
What encouragement would you offer to others who are struggling with addiction about the role that your Catholic faith can play in healing and recovery?
To other parents… don’t give up hope. Miracles can and do happen. Fear sometimes makes us do things that are unhealthy when the best thing to do often times is surrender our addict to God. Even if the worst happens.. our kids are baptized children of the Father and He will take care of them in His great love and mercy.
...I found out about Cenacolo, a Catholic mission for addicts...
How did your struggle with addiction begin?
With my daughter, 11 years ago.
In your time of suffering, what do you need from the Church?
I had no resources from the [parish]. I found out about Cenacolo, a Catholic mission for addicts and lost youth hopereborn.org, through friends at a rosary group. My [parish] didn’t have anything for me.
How has your Catholic faith helped you in your journey toward recovery? What devotions, practices, and aspects of your Catholic faith have helped most?
My [parish] didn’t help! I was attracted to a group of women who pray the rosary. They led me, not my priest, to Jesus through Mary and adoration. The result of the prayer took us to freedom at Cenacolo, where they live the faith.
What encouragement would you offer to others who are struggling with addiction about the role that your Catholic faith can play in healing and recovery?
Pray to Our Lady, surrender your loved one to Jesus and Mary and learn about Catholic recovery. Cenacolo is FREE , open to healthy young adults seeking freedom from addiction. Nothing else worked. Our daughter is drug free for 6 years and in love with Jesus.
My journey to recovery would be unbearable without the Catholic faith...
How did your struggle with addiction begin?
At the age of 15 with my friends who would steal alcohol from their parents. It was very common in my circle of friends.
In your time of suffering, what do you need from the Church? How can we support you?
Someone to speak with in times of temptation.
How has your Catholic faith helped you in your journey toward recovery? What devotions, practices and aspects of your Catholic faith have helped the most?
My journey to recovery would be unbearable without the Catholic faith. I know that God loves me even though I am not perfect. The Sacrament of Penance has helped me the most. Although, every time I slip, I get even more angry with myself because I break the promise that I made in confession to avoid sin and that which leads me to it.
What encouragement would you offer to others who are struggling with addiction about the role that your Catholic faith can play in healing and recovery?
Just know that God is there for you to forgive you and to love you know matter how much you may hate yourself and your actions.
Share Your Story
We would like to better understand the nature of addiction and how the church can be present to those who are suffering. Please feel free to share your story with us so that we, as well as others, can learn from you and your journey.
If you wish, please fill out this anonymous questionnaire here.
More Resources
A Two-Pronged Response to the Addiction Crisis
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia offers a two-pronged response to the addiction crisis, which aims to attend to the needs of the whole person, body, mind and spirit:
- For clinical and social service resources such as local treatment facilities, AA, NA and Al-Anon groups, insurance information, crisis support, and other services, visit RecoveryAndHope.org or click the icon below.
- For Catholic spiritual supports for addiction offered by our local Catholic community, please explore our Hope in Christ webpage above.
