Historical Perspective of Father Ralph Pfau and the NCCA Adapted from a talk by Monsignor William J. Clausen at the 50th anniversary celebration of the NCCA in 1999. Monsignor Clausen is pastor of Saint Mary Church, Maple Park, Illinois, a former board member and past president of the NCCA.

The first diocesan policy addressing alcoholism among priests and men and women religious was promulgated in Chicago in 1966. Father Ralph Pfau, the founder of the National Catholic Council on Alcoholism, died in 1967. Thank God Father Pfau lived to see the first large diocese in the United States bring this problem out into the open and devise a plan to deal with it. On August 23-25, 1949, the first gathering of NCCA took place at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana. It was hosted by Bishop John G. Bennett of Lafayette, Indiana, with Archbishop Paul Schulte of Indianapolis in attendance. Bishop John Cody also attended representing Archbishop Joseph Ritter of St. Louis. Bishop Cody later would become the Archbishop of Chicago. Is it surprising that one of few bishops to be at the first NCCA Conference was the first Bishop to have a promulgated policy? Father Pfau became the first priest to sober up through Alcoholics Anonymous. “By Divine Providence, I became the first priest-member of Alcoholics Anonymous back in 1943. And those of you who know my story know I wasn’t too willing at the time . . . and 14 years later, by the grace of God and the help of AA, I can say, ‘I am sober today,'” (Alcoholism: A Source Book for the Priest, 1960). In this talk given in 1957, he describes how NCCA began. He met Father Edward Dowling, SJ, who was the first priest to approach the problem of the alcoholic through AA. He made a trip to New York City to meet Bill Wilson. 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?” In 1949 Father Pfau approached Archbishop Schulte and Bishop Bennett not only about a gathering of priests members of AA, but also of all priests who might be interested in solving the problem of the priest alcoholic. A letter went out to all the ordinaries asking if they had any priest alcoholics. Forty-seven attended that first conference in Rensselaer, made possible through the good graces of the Fathers of the Precious Blood who today still own and staff the college. A psychiatrist, a medical doctor, and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic priests came to the conference.

Nothing but faith Father Pfau recalled the event: “We had no idea of making it an annual affair. We did not know what was going to happen. We started on nothing but faith in Providence and a hope that something would come of it.” From the start Father wanted laymen there. Even though the first conference was not open to the laity, laity always have attended: those interested in the priest alcoholic such as psychiatrists, doctors and AA members. Father Pfau wanted the lay attitude toward the priest alcoholic problem to be shared. For four years the conference was held at Rensselaer. Then the board decided it would be better to move the conference each year to give local clergy a chance to participate in the discussions. It also would give NCCA a chance to disseminate what was learned about alcoholism. So once they “got their act together” at Rensselaer, they took the show to the big city — Jamaica, New York; then Boston, Kansas City, Missouri; and so on . . . For the first 10 years of the NCCA the focus was on coming to grips with alcoholism as more than a moral problem. Alcoholism is described in detail as a disease that responds to treatment and the power of AA. The unique and delicate position of the alcoholic priest is emphasized. The need for bishops and priests to understand the nature of this disease and for seminarians to be well educated about the malady is stressed. The record of NCCA proceedings from the gathering at the Statler Hilton in Buffalo, New York, April 27-28, 1965, has Father Pfau sharing this insight: “I personally had convinced myself that one could not become an alcoholic unless one drank in the morning. So I would take barbitals, bromides, ASA, what-have-you until noon — then I could drink to my heart’s content and not be an alcoholic. Many times I poured the drink in the kitchen at eight o’clock in the morning after Mass, and hour after hour I would paddle out and look at it until noon, and then ‘down the hatch.’ I wasn’t an alcoholic because I didn’t drink in the morning!” Many people did not understand alcoholism as a disease. Father Pfau was not alone in his misunderstanding. Father Pfau believed that priests in AA felt the need to know if there were other priests in AA. He knew from personal experience the stigma attached to alcoholism, which made it hard for priests to get help. For a number of years at NCCA gatherings, there was a Pastoral Institute on Alcoholism and also a Clergy Conference. Volume XIX of The Blue Book, — NCCA’s record of its annual symposia — contained the proceedings of the XIXth National Clergy Council on Alcoholism, but also the Ninth Annual Pastoral Institute. They are described as follows: “The National Clergy Council on Alcoholism meets annually to conduct two separate and distinct projects: the first is The Pastoral Institute on Alcohol Problems; the second is The Conference itself. “The Pastoral Institute does not discuss or deal with personal problems of priests. It treats only of their professional problems. All priests who are engaged in the care of souls frequently encounter cases of alcoholism and of excessive drinking. The Pastoral Institute is presented to help priests deal with the problems intelligently and successfully. Its sessions are publicized and open to all priests and students of theology in major seminaries. “The Conference deals primarily with priests’ personal problems. Consequently its sessions are not to be publicized, although they are open to all priests who take an interest in these special problems. Laymen may attend only by special invitation from the Board of Directors.” The last time the annual NCCA meeting was divided in this manner was in 1968. In 1969 laymen Richard Caron and Gerard Weidman are listed as board members. In 1972, Mrs. Marge Klemm and Mrs. David Worrell were named as committee members, and in 1974, Sister Therese Golden, OP, became a member of the board. Father Pfau always was concerned that alcoholic nuns were in a delicate position.

National Catholic Council In 1971, the “Twenty-third National Clergy Conference on Alcoholism” was held. However, in that same year, the members of Board of Directors were listed under the title “National Clergy Council on Alcoholism.” In 1985, a resolution was introduced to change the name of the organization to the National Catholic Council on Alcoholism to show that membership included laity among its leadership as well as men and women religious. The resolution passed at the 1988 NCCA gathering at St. Louis. Today the NCCA is the National Catholic Council on Alcoholism and Related Drug Problems, Inc. (The “Related Drug Problems” was added to the title in 1974.) In 1974 a special outreach to men and women religious was under way. Also, the format had changed from a lecture style symposium to a workshop approach. A few years earlier at the insistence of Father John Ford, other family victims of alcoholism were included in the symposium. The NCCA is a work in progress. Conferences over the years have had attendance of more than 200 or fewer than 50. The council has been both ignored and consulted. Bishop Bennett in the 1950s encouraged and supported an organization that many viewed as unnecessary and unwanted. Cardinal Anthony Bevilaqua in the 1990s has encouraged and supported an organization many say variously has done its work or is past its prime. The Cardinal said in1999: “May God continue to bless you and your important mission!” Struggle and conflict have been mixed with hope and healing, and a commitment to carry the message today to a Church greatly in need of hearing it. The NCCA has never sought for recognition and indeed has never had it. It has, however, endured. An important part of NCCA history has been the Society of Matt Talbot Guild — publishing the books and supporting the NCCA through the work of Marge Klemm, Pat Worrell, Josephine Pfau, Mary Pfau and her husband Ralph, and their dear friend Marge McMahon. They went to close things up at the SMT Guild in 1968 when Father Pfau died, yet they were still going 30 years later in 1998 when they turned over the publishing to the Hazelden Foundation. Father Pfau’s retreat work was his major activity until his death. The SMT publications grew out of that as well as the records and tapes. In the modern era, Monsignor Kieran Martin took over as Secretary/Treasurer at the NCCA Office in Brooklyn and brought fiscal discipline to the organization. The board has reviewed its duties and made revisions to the constitution. The Knights of Columbus have been a mainstay of needed support over the years. A trust from the estate of the Mr. and Mrs. Theo Vanneman has been a Godsend. The NCCA is especially indebted to Father Ralph Pfau for his faith and courage. “We did not know what was going to happen,” he said. “We started on nothing but faith in Providence and a hope that something would come of it.”

A testimonial to God’s grace All of Father Pfau’s work was a testimonial to God’s grace. He knew when he got sober in AA that a miracle took place. He was still an alcoholic and a neurotic, but he could live in sobriety and he could live fairly well adjusted. He did live a full and productive life. When he died sober of viral hepatitis early Sunday morning, February 19, 1967, at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Owensboro, Kentucky, he was at peace. He had just learned that his last book, The Golden Book of Sanctity, had been approved for publication. The book notes three levels of sanctity: “Heroic sanctity — in which classification we find such stalwart man and women of history as St. Paul, the apostles, the martyrs, and the like: all of whom accomplished great deeds perfectly both in view of God and man.” “Solemn sanctity — in this class we find the long list of canonized saints.” “. . . all the saints did whatever they had to do — perfectly.” He cites St. Therese of Lisieux as an example of “perfection in simple daily life [which] also takes heroism.” “Simple sanctity — Here we should find the rest of the vast human race — you and you and you and me! It is not a special vocation, it is a universal vocation to all mankind — to be saints, to be perfect.” Father Pfau described this simple sanctity: “It means first and foremost that we must accept ourselves as we are — today: good or bad, sinner or saint, ignorant or educated, screwball or alcoholic (or both), rich or poor, Catholic, Protestant, Jew, agnostic, single, married . . . exactly whatever we are now.” The perfection God expects is in our being willing to let God approve of me, sanction me today. “We must admit and accept ourselves as we are and God will do the rest in His time and His way.”

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Fr. Ralph Pfau’s is believed to have been the first Roman Catholic priest to enter Alcoholics Anonymous. Fr. Pfau was born on November 10, 1904, and died on February 19, 1967. He was a priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, ordained at St. Meinrad Seminary, and received an MA in Education at Fordham University. In the opening paragraph of his autobiography, “Prodigal Shepherd,” Father Pfau wrote: “All my life, I will carry three indelible marks.  I am a Roman Catholic priest.  I am an alcoholic.  And I am a neurotic.” I will address these in reverse order: HE WAS A NEUROTIC He admits to having “nervous breakdowns,” and spending time in sanitariums.  He was twice relieved of his parish.  Even after achieving sobriety, he continued to be plagued by depressions, which were sometimes severe and long-lasting.

HE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC He never had a drink until about a year after his ordination. But by 1943 he was sufficiently worried about his drinking to investigate A.A. While responding to a call from a woman who said her husband was dying, he learned from the doctor that the man was not dying by merely passed out from a combination of alcohol and barbital.  As Fr. Pfau was leaving the house he noticed a book on a shelf and asked if he could borrow it.  It was “Alcoholics Anonymous.” When he arrived home it was past 3 a.m., and he was longing for a drink.  But he could not take a drink.  He had to say Mass at 6 a.m., so could neither eat nor drink.  But he knew he couldn’t sleep, so he sat down in a chair and started reading the book.  And he couldn’t take his hands off that book. Day after day for three or four weeks, whenever he had a spare hour or two he would sit in his room reading, studying and thinking.  He didn’t miss a day reading the book through at least once.  It became seared in his brain, “word for word, comma for comma, question mark for question mark.”  He knew it from cover to cover.  And to his amazement, during that entire period he did not take a drink. One evening he noticed some AA pamphlets on a side table in the vestibule of the rectory.  At supper he asked who had left the pamphlets and learned that they were left by Doherty “Dohr” Sheerin, described by the pastor as “the president or something of A.A. here in Indianapolis.” Fr. Pfau studied the pamphlets as thoroughly as he had studied the Big Book, but he couldn’t believe they applied to him.  He was not an alcoholic, or so he thought. During this period of not drinking he stepped up the medication the doctor had prescribed, a combination of barbital and Dexedrine. He was frightened and he needed help.  So one night he telephoned Dohr Sheerin and asked “I was just wondering — could I possibly see you some time?  I’d like to talk to you about — something.  There’s no hurry.” “I’ll be right over,” was the reply, and Dohr Sheerin hung up the phone before Fr. Pfau could reply.  Sheerin invited him to attend the meeting the following Thursday.  He agreed to attend “just as a spectator.”  They talked for a few minutes more and Dohr left.  That was November 10, 1941, Fr. Pfau’s 39th birthday. For the next 25 years, despite severe problems with depressions, he never took another drink.  For a short time he continued to take medications prescribed by his doctor and by Mayo Clinic.  But after seeing a friend who had overdosed on seconal he hurried to a doctor in charge of the local “drying out” facility and told him that he was frightened.  “I just got back from Mayo, where they gave me a couple hundred pills to take for my nervousness.  But now I don’t know what to do with them.” “Well,” said the doctor, “those people know what they’re doing up there.  Did you tell them you are an alcoholic?”  He then explained that if the doctors at Mayo Clinic had known he was an alcoholic they would never have given him the pills.  So he went home and threw away the pills. With the approval of his Archbishop, he devoted himself to helping other alcoholics, particularly alcoholic priests.  He traveled more than 50,000 miles a year to address meetings, conduct retreats and help individuals. His retreats were attended by thousands of Catholics and by many more thousands who were not Catholics.  His retreat talks were eventually published in a series of “Golden Books.”  They were so named because when he held the second annual retreat in June of 1947, at the request of some of the people who had attended the first retreat his talks were printed in a fifty-six page booklet with a gold cover, and distributed as a souvenir, through the generosity of the owner of the archdiocesan newspaper in Indianapolis.  People began requesting copies of “the golden book of your retreat.” His books “Sobriety Without End,” and “Sobriety and Beyond,” have been read by thousands. In 1948 he founded the National Clergy Conference on Alcoholism, an organization devoted to the problems of priests, and directed it for many years.  Its publications, especially “Alcoholism Source Book for Priests,” and the annual “Blue Book,” made a deep impact on the American Catholic Hierarchy. Fr. John C. Ford, S. J., in an Epilogue to a new edition of Pfau’s autobiography, published after his death but planned by him, says that “the whole career of Father Pfau can only be understood in the light of the fact that he was a pioneer.  He broke new ground.  …  Like any pioneer he met opposition and had to have fortitude.  Like any Christian innovator he had to have deep faith.  It was faith and fortitude that sustained his zeal for the salvation of the countless souls he helped.” Bill Wilson had warned Fr, Pfau that he would receive opposition: “Bill, a fine gentleman, taught me something I’ve never forgotten.  ‘Father,’ he said, ‘you will do a great deal of good in a great many places.  As a Catholic priest and an alcoholic, you can be instrumental in helping alcoholics wherever you go.  But remember this — no matter how well you do, no matter how much you help others or how many you help, no matter what you say or how you say it, no matter what happens — you can’t and won’t please everyone.  Wherever you go and whatever you do, someone will find a way to criticize you. “‘You must take the criticism, no matter how unjustified, with tolerance and forbearance.  Remember that resentments can lead to trouble, so you must work doubly hard not to harbor them.  Don’t ever let anything bother you.  I have taken criticism from unexpected sources many times since we began this program, and so will you.  Just let it roll off your back like water off a duck’s, and you’ll be all right.” While Father Pfau obviously had great affection for Bill Wilson, he apparently did not always agree with him.  Four o’clock on Sunday afternoon July 3, 1955, at the International A.A. Convention in St. Louis, was a watershed moment in the history of Alcoholics Anonymous.  The fifth General Service Conference met during the Convention.  This marked the end of the five-year trial period for the Conference. Bill Wilson had campaigned for the Conference vigorously. But Father Pfau, who was influential, though controversial, had announced he was going to rise and speak against it.  When Bill presented his resolution and a vote of approval was requested, reported Nell Wing, “We from the office sat with baited breath.”  But Father Pfau did not object and the resolution passed. Tex Brown, who died October 5, 2000, told me this story at the International Convention in Minneapolis a few months before his death.  I asked him to write it for the AA History Buffs. Tex attended the first International A.A. Convention in Cleveland in 1950.  He told me “At the ‘Spiritual Meeting’ on Sunday morning the main speaker’s topic dealt with the idea that the alcoholic was to be the instrument that God would use to regenerate and save the world. He expounded the idea that alcoholics were God’s Chosen People and he was starting to talk about AA being ‘The Third Covenant,’ when he was interrupted by shouted objections from the back of the room.  The objector, who turned out to be a small Catholic priest, would not be hushed up.  There was chaos and embarrassment as the meeting was quickly adjourned. I was upset and in full sympathy with the poor speaker.  I did not realize it at the time, but I had seen Father Pfau in action and Father Pfau was right. I had heard the group conscience and I rejected it.” Bill told the story like this: “On Sunday morning we listened to a panel of four A.A.s who portrayed the spiritual side of Alcoholics Anonymous — as they understood it. …  A hush fell upon the crowd as we paused for a moment of silence. Then came the speakers, earnest and carefully prepared, all of them. I cannot recall an A.A. gathering where the attention was more complete, or the devotion deeper. “Yet some thought that those truly excellent speakers had, in their enthusiasm, unintentionally created a bit of a problem. It was felt the meeting had gone over far in the direction of religious comparison, philosophy and interpretation, when by firm long standing tradition we A.A.’s had always left such questions strictly to the chosen faith of each individual. “One member rose with a word of caution.  [Apparently he was referring to Fr. Pfau.]  As I heard him, I thought, ‘What a fortunate occurrence.’  How well we shall always remember that A.A. is never to be thought of as a religion.  How firmly we shall insist that A.A. membership cannot depend upon any particular belief whatever; that our twelve steps contain no article of religious faith except faith in God — as each of us understands Him.  How carefully we shall henceforth avoid any situation which could possibly lead us to debate matters of personal religious belief.”

HE WAS A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST For many years he doubted the validity of his priesthood.  He had not chosen it.  His mother wanted him to be a priest from the day he was born and would frequently introduce her little boy by saying “This is Ralph.  He’s going to be a priest.”  He was unsure he wanted to be a priest, and for many years, especially during his periods in sanitariums, and during the worst periods of his alcoholism, he continued to doubt the validity of his ordination.  But he eventually came to believe that, though he had not chosen the priesthood, he was chosen for it. Father Ford wrote at this end of his Epilogue:  “Those who knew Father Ralph best, those who knew him when he was sick and when he was well, those who saw at first hand the evidence of his devotion to the cause of Christ, and to the sick alcoholic in whom he always saw Christ — and this despite the severest trials that depression can  inflict — are the only ones who have a right to estimate the accomplishments of his life’s work.  Fortunately these accomplishments live on in the organization he founded and in the countless lives of those who found sobriety and peace, under God, through Ralph Pfau. “May his courageous soul rest in peace.”

SOURCES:

“Prodigal Shepherd,” by Father Ralph Pfau and Al Hirshberg.  [Father Pfau had planned that this new edition of his autobiography be published, as had his previous works, under his pen name “Fr. John Doe.”  But since he died prior to its publication it was decided to use his name.  Apart from the author, whenever a person is mentioned who is a member of A.A. only the first name is used.  The sole exception is in the case of Doherty Sheerin who was the founder of A.A. in Indianapolis.  The name of Doherty Sheerin, deceased at the time of publication, was used with the permission of his widow, Mrs. Dorothy Sheerin.] Unpublished manuscript on the history of A.A. by Bob P. Talk by Bill Wilson on 1950 Convention, date unknown. Conversations with Tex Brown in July 2000.