A Free Pre-AA History Book

A Pre-AA History Book: A Study of Synchronic Events Between Years 1926 and 1935 which Culminated in the Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous
by Bob S
http://www.aamuncie.org/files/Pre_AA_History_Book_2011.pdf

According to the author, the purpose of this book is "to present a brief sketch of AA prehistory in hopes of attracting an interest in the exciting past of Alcoholics Anonymous."

He states his book does not attempt to delve deeply into pre-AA history, but simply provides a number of short snippets and photographs of some key figures that influenced the beginning of 
AA such as  Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, Dr. Carl Jung, Rowland Hazard, Ebby Thacher, Dr. William Silkworth, Lois Wilson, and Rev. Sam Shoemaker among others.

This free twenty-eight page online book is intentionally not available for sale. It is the author's hope that readers will print it not only for their own research but also pass it on to sponsees, Home Group, District, Area, Intergroup, local clubhouses, AA friends, and interested casual readers.

The author clearly notes that the book is of his own doing and is not endorsed by any Alcoholics Anonymous Group, District, Area or GSO or other agency of Alcoholics Anonymous.

At the same time, people in Ireland and other countries were beginning to learn about an alcoholic who became a holy man, named Matt Talbot (1856-1925), through the multiple editions of a biography written by Sir Joseph Glynn beginning in 1926 and continuing over the next two decades. Within a year of the first publication, copies were translated into fourteen languages.

While AA did not yet exist during Matt's lifetime,  a former Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Venerable Matt Talbot stated
that elements of the twelve steps can be identified in Matt's life. (Matt Talbot: Hope for Addicts, 2001, pp 20-27)

Matt Talbot and the History of A.A. in Dublin

Alcoholics Anonymous in Dublin celebrates its 65th anniversary this month.

While Matt Talbot died ten years before the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio, USA, in 1935 and 21 years before the first AA meeting was held in Dublin on November 18, 1946, Matt's journey of continuous sobriety was based on the resources that were available in Dublin during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Certainly not to detract from his religious practices and individual approach to recovery (see http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search/label/%22Matt%20Talbot%20way%22), former Vice-Postulator of the Cause of Matt Talbot, Fr. Morgan Costello, has noted in his publication,"Matt Talbot: Hope for Addicts" (1987; 2001), that elements of A.A.’s twelve-steps can be identified in Matt’s recovery.

Three articles related to the history of Alcoholics Anonymous in Dublin can be found at:

http://www.barefootsworld.net/aaireland.html

http://silkworth.net/aagrowth/ireland_Dublin.html

http://www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie/page4.html

One man's journey in recovery

From time to time we post articles, interviews, and books about an individual’s journey in recovering from alcoholism. One book, for example, is that after concluding he did not care for the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, Philip Maynard studied the life and approach to recovery of Matt Talbot, which he personally followed and later wrote the “training manual,” To Slake a Thirst: The Matt Talbot Way to Sobriety (2000).

At the same time, it is important to note that although Matt Talbot began his recovery from alcoholism in 1884 (at age 28) and died ten years before the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in the USA in 1935 and in Dublin in 1946, Fr. Morgan Costello, long-time former Vice-Postulator for the Cause of the Venerable Matt Talbot, has written that Matt’s approach to overcoming alcoholism did incorporate the twelve steps of AA along with Matt’s personal and Roman Catholic practices. [See Fr. Costelloe’s booklet, Matt Talbot: Hope for Addicts (2001 edition), Veritas Publications, Dublin or available through Matt Talbot Retreats at http://matttalbotretreats.org/2009/10/where-can-i-find-group-forms-and-other-usefull-information/]

Although he does not mention Matt Talbot per se, the subject of the interview with John Garcia, found at

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/alcoholism-drives-man-beyond-12-steps-and-into-the-church, describes his recovery journey as moving from a 12 steps approach to a Roman Catholic based approach. In reading this interview it is essential to also read the many comments that articulate agreement and disagreement with Mr. Garcia’s views, especially regarding AA.

The 12 Steps and Catholicism

Earlier this week we posted a letter by Fr. John Bonavitacola about a statue of Matt Talbot as an image of liberty placed on the grounds of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Tempe, Arizona, (http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2011/01/matt-talbot-as-image-of-liberty.html). In the letter that follows, Fr. John notes that there need not be a conflict between the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Catholicism. (We have previously noted on this resource center site that Fr. Morgan Costelloe, former Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Matt Talbot, has discussed in his book, Matt Talbot: Hope for Addicts (2001, Veritas Publications), Matt's recovery journey in light of the twelve steps, decades before AA was founded. (JB)

Letters from the Pastor
Fr. John Bonavitacola
January 2, 2011
Dear Friends,


Our Annual Mass of Gratitude for the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous takes place Saturday, January 8 at 9am followed by a Pancake Breakfast in the Hall. Come join with those who have been blessed with recovery from addiction with the help of the 12 Steps and their families and friends. Addiction and compulsive behaviors have made the life of many a person and their loved ones unmanageable to varying degrees. Gratefully we live at a moment when recovery is possible in ways that weren't prior to the program that was started by Alcoholics Anonymous.

One of my purposes in making this an annual celebration is to make clear the connection between religion and spirituality that is often severed because of a faulty understanding of 12 Step Programs. I also want to show that you can be in recovery and still be a very good Catholic. In other words there is no conflict between the 12 Steps and Catholicism.

The founders of AA knew that they would fail if they tried to promote their new found success with traditional marketing or advertising. The reason for this was that they understood that anything that would pump up the ego of the alcoholic was extremely dangerous to his sobriety as alcoholics find sobriety only through a process of deflating their overly swollen egos. Humility is essential to recovery. But the problem they faced was how could they manage to have AA accepted as a legitimate moral program and not be seen as some fringe or cult-like group if they refused to promote it?


After publishing the book Alcoholics Anonymous, a Jesuit priest named Fr. Ed Dowling happened to get a copy and he marveled at the similarity between the 12 Steps and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Dowling managed to track down Bill W, the cofounder of AA, which was not so easy since AA at that time was very strict about the anonymity of its members. He knocked on Bill W’s door on a very windy New York evening and Bill’s first thought after seeing the disheveled priest was that this was another drunk looking for help! Fr. Dowling wanted to know where Bill had gotten these 12 Steps and if he used any of St. Ignatius works. Bill, a bit confused by the question admitted he had no idea what the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius were. At that point both men began to realize that God was doing something big in the history of spirituality. All AA did was arrange the spiritual principles that the ages had handed on down in a new way that enabled alcoholics to recover. Fr. Dowling, and many other clergymen endorsed the program of AA giving it the needed nod from organized religion.

Bill W continued a friendship with Fr. Ed and often consulted many other clergymen so as to make sure the new program of AA was on solid spiritual grounds. Bill also would frequently stress that AA was not a substitute for religion and that AA would be forever in debt to the religious men and women who nurtured AA at its beginning. And in the book, "Alcoholics Anonymous,"  members are encouraged to return to their places of worship where they will find “new avenues of usefulness and pleasure” and where they and their families can be “bright spots” in their congregations. In other words the recovered person and their recovered family can offer much to those who sit in the pews with them and still suffer because of alcoholism or addiction. Thank you to the many, many recovered members of our parish and their families who have so generously shared their “experience, strength and hope” of pain and healing with those who still suffer in our parish. Remember you never know when you will be needed to help another, but you can’t help another if you are not there to pass it on!


And to the families whose loved ones have died as a direct result of alcoholism or addiction or who are still wounded by the scars of this disease please come and pray with us for your loved ones. Together let us continue to “trudge the road of happy destiny”. Until January 8 may God bless you and keep you!


"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next."
Amen. -- Reinhold Niebuhr


Source: 2011, Jan 2, 2011 - Annual Mass of Gratitude 

Note: The prayer at the end of this letter is known as "The Serenity Prayer" in its "long- form."

Matt Talbot's canonisation would be a sign of hope to addicts

By Morgan Costelloe

The Irish Times

January 14, 1997

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/1997/0114/97011400091.html

EMMET Oliver is a freelance journalist who presented his views on the implications of the canonisation of Matt Talbot in this column last month. Unfortunately, his contribution was littered with factual errors, distortions and shallowness. {See Oliver's column below}

He told us that Mall Talbot was born in Rutland Street and that he had chains embedded in his flesh when he died. He mentioned the 1954 biography of the Dublin workman, Matt Talbot and his Times, but apparently did not read it carefully. Had he done so, he would have learned that Mall Talbot was born in Aldborough Court and did not have chains embedded in his body when he collapsed. If he wishes to research this point further, he should read the sworn evidence of Sister M. Ignatius and others at the Ordinary Process. Her observations may be read in our diocesan archives.

The cult of Mall Talbot was initiated by the poor of the inner city visiting and praying at his grave. Emmet Oliver contends that it was fostered by an oppressive church to continue "a subtle form of subjugation" of its members. "It is no wonder that Archbishop McQuaid wrote the preface to the man's biography in 1954," he writes, adding "no other figure has been more associated with the powerful, dictatorial and puritanical church of his time."

THAT outburst reveals Mr Oliver's real attitude, particularly to readers who know that Archbishop McQuaid commissioned the late Mary Purcell to write that book out of a deep personal devotion to Mall Talbot. It is worth noting that Mall Talbot was well known long before Dr McQuaid was appointed archbishop in 1940. An earlier biography by Joseph Glynn had been translated into 13 European languages by 1929.

It would be impractical to deal with all the points in Mr Oliver's article. However, I was amused by his reference to "one pamphlet about Mall Talbot" in which he informs us that a comparison is made with Tim Severin, the explorer.

He then condemns the author on the grounds that "particular emphasis is placed on his Irish nationality, which no doubt makes him a more wholesome cause for committees in the US who have championed his cause." This pamphlet deals exclusively with Mall Talbot's spirituality and places no emphasis on his nationality. I know because I wrote it: The Mystery of Matt Talbot (Irish Messenger Publications).

"You must therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," Christ told His followers. When Mall Talbot found sobriety through prayer and spiritual guidance, his desire for drink was replaced by a desire for Christian perfection.

There are many ways to this goal. He turned to Monsignor Michael Hickey, an experienced spiritual director, for advice. He chose a programme closely resembling the rule of the early Irish monasteries, which moulded the great saints of the fifth and sixth centuries. Monsignor Hickey judged that Mall Talbot was an exceptional person who was physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of following their way to God. They met weekly for many years to monitor Matt's progress.

THE principal elements in the rule of the monasteries were prayer, fasting, penance, work, study, devotion to Our Lady and missionary drive. "The Mystery of Matt Talbot" examines how and why a Dublin woman lived this rule in our own century.

It is doubtful if Mr Oliver read this pamphlet with any depth. Had he done so, he would have discovered that there was one notable exception to the rule in the case of Mall Talbot. While some early Irish monks engaged in self flagellation, that was never part of his programme.

Matt Talbot developed a deep devotion to Our Lady and was impressed by Louis Marie de Montfort's book, "True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin." The future saint stated that anyone who practised this devotion broke the chain of sin and assumed the chain of love. He suggested that such a person should wear a light chain, a bracelet, as a symbol. Mall Talbot did not settle for a bracelet. With the permission of his spiritual director, he wore chains wrapped around his body on special occasions.

Mall Talbot's ascetic practices have to be viewed against the historical selling of his time (1856-1925). There is no foundation to Emmet Oliver's opinion that they constituted "extreme self abuse." Dr Feichin O'Doherty, professor of psychology in UCD, dealt with this question in a 1977 RTE documentary and concluded that self abuse did not arise.

Mall Talbot's neighbours and workmates had no idea that he was living by a strict monastic rule. To them, he was a happy, kind, prayerful and generous man. Few knew that he was a recovered alcoholic, a former addict. He "kicked the habit" by the grace of God. His higher power was the God and faith of his childhood.

Our present Pope believes that God in his providence has raised Mall Talbot as a sign of hope for addicts. This view is shared by 50,000 members of the Mall Talbot Retreat Movement of the US.

All are recovering alcoholics. They attend regular enclosed retreats - including the many who do not share the Catholic faith - and learn that while no one is expected to emulate the ascetic life of their patron, a spiritual dimension is essential for their rehabilitation programme. As retreatant said to me once: "If Talbot can do it by the grace of God, I can do it."

Emmet Oliver wonders what the canonisation of Mall Talbot would say. The answer is found in the petition sent to Pope John Paul II on behalf of the 50,000 members requesting his beatification.

It is found also in the hundreds of reports of favours from individuals and families which I have received from many parts of the world. His canonisation would speak of a caring, compassionate church. It would give hope to addicts.

Note: Fr. Morgan Costelloe was Vice-Postulator of the Cause for Venerable Matt Talbot when this column was published.

"Working man's saint or misguided victim?"

By Emmet Oliver

The Irish Times

December 17, 1966

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/1996/1217/96121700110.html

IN A Catholic Church of declining vocations and recent sexual scandal the search for an unblemished symbol of faith to reinvent the unsullied church of 30 or 40 years ago is ongoing.

The beatification of Edmund Rice recently focused attention on the traditions of Catholic education. The possibility of another beatification, that of Malt Talbot, may not be a cause for celebration in the same unreserved way by Catholics or people in other churches.

A couple of months ago the auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr James Moriarty, spoke of Malt Talbot's example and how his canonisation would be a rich reward for a supremely devotional life.

The campaign for his canonisation is currently collecting evidence. If his beatification - the first step to canonisation - is granted, many, Catholics will reflect on what this means for the church now. The meaning of Edmund Rice's beatification to a church desperately trying, to hang on to its central role in education is obvious. It is less clear what the canonisation of Malt Talbot would say.

I remember as a schoolboy in Dublin, in the mid-1980s, being told the story of Malt Talbot. A teacher informed us that this man's life should be an inspirational model. The shock and genuine fear among our group when we heard the full story was manifest.

The story is well known to generations of Catholic children who were told the only way to stay off the drink was to copy Malt Talbot's conversion to God.

Malt Talbot was born in a drab tenement house in Rutland Street, Dublin, in 1856. He was an alcoholic from the age of 16 after he began sampling pints of porter at a bottling plant where he got his first job. Before he embarked on his penitential journey, he was known as Barney Talbot, a stereotypical hard man of Dublin pub life, who regularly drank himself into a stupor.

It is claimed his conversion came suddenly one Saturday in 1884 when he pledged to abstain from drink for three months. His future devotional practices were a way to divert his mind from a genuine addiction.

In fact he would probably never have achieved recognition within the church if it had not been for the chains which were found embedded in his skin when his dead body wash examined in hospital. Does the church hierarchy now honestly believe that people should follow Malt Talbot's example of devotion and sanctity, which included punishing himself with cords, chains, wooden pillows and plank beds?

The image of Malt Talbot wearing chains and taking the Stations of the Cross on his knees does not seem in tune with post-Vatican II ideas of religious worship and freedom or the new radical Catholic social thinking of recent years.

For most people such penitential practices are hard to imagine, even at Lough Derg. They will remind, many older people of the austerity, harshness and brutality of the early years of the State or even worse the fundamentalism of Opus Dei.

Another unsettling element in Malt Talbot's story is the relationship that existed between him and his spiritual directors. Every part of his life eventually became ruled by the guidance given to him by priests such as Dr Hickey, the then rector of Clonliffe College.

Once when a young girl proposed marriage to Talbot, he told her the answer was "no" - Our Lady had told him not to gel married. But we do not know if the advice came from a less celestial source, either Dr Hickey or another key confessor, the Jesuit Father James Walsh.

The impression one gels from these relationships is of Matt Talbot, illiterate for much of his life, being given guidance by people better educated and more comfortable in society than him. Were these people not, obliged to dissuade Talbot from trying to achieve sanctity through extreme forms of self-abuse? Would they themselves have taken the same punishing road to devotion which they recommended to this simple and unassuming working man?

Malt Talbot was trying during all this to replicate the ascetic environment of a monastery. A book called True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by the 18th-century French saint Louis Grignon de Montfort - which is also one of Pope John Paul II's favourite devotional books - gave him the idea for the chains and self-punishment.

The dark stories which have emerged from homes and orphanages like Goldenbridge remind us what Catholicism often meant in practice in the early and middle part of this century. Far from Matt TaIbot being the working man's saint, his form of devotion and the authoritarian mindset which controlled the church then exemplify all the things that kept the working man in a subtle form of subjugation.

In one pamphlet produced about Matt Talbot, a comparison is drawn between his spiritual achievements and the seafaring achievements off the explorer Tim Severin, who emulated the Brendan voyage, using an exact replica of the saint's leather boat.

Another description of Talbot's efforts in the same pamphlet is that he engaged in "no half measures". Particular emphasis is placed on his Irish nationality, which no doubt makes him a more wholesome cause for committees in the US who have championed his cause.

It is no wonder that Archbishop John Charles McQuaid wrote the preface to the man's biography in 1954. No other figure has been more associated with the powerful, dictatorial and puritanical church of the time. It is known that from the comfort of his palatial residence, he regarded Malt Talbot's life with some awe.

Is it possible that Matt Talbot was a victim of the ethos that Archbishop McQuaid came to represent? But more importantly would a canonisation now offer some kind of retrospective approval for those values?

"Matt Talbot, hope for addicts"

By Brian Hooks

The Catholic Weekly (Sydney)

7 October 2001

Pope Paul said in 1977 he was keen to beatify Venerable Matthew Talbot, Hope of Addicts, within a year or two.

And Pope John Paul II is equally supportive.

But the struggle goes on, as Dublin priest Fr Morgan Costelloe, Vice-Postulator for the cause of Matt Talbot, scours the world for evidence of the physical miracle the Vatican requires.

Fr Costelloe began his work in 1974 and is the third man to take the job, since the campaign began in 1931, just six years after Matt’s death.

Matt Talbot was venerated in 1975. His life is a wonderful example of God’s Grace.

Hopelessly addicted to alcohol at the age of 28, and filled with shame, Matt resolved to change his life. With the help of the Jesuits and the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius, Matt was able to.

Now his example has become a shining light of hope to others caught in a web of addiction.

“They think, ‘if God could do this for Matt Talbot, he can do it for me’,” Fr Costelloe said. “Alcoholics can identify with Matt because he went through all the horrors, the shivers, the shakes, the cold turkey.

“The Pope said he’s convinced Matt’s the man chosen by God to be the patron saint of addicts.

“And if you look at the list of patron saints there’s no patron saint for addicts.

“And when you look at Church history, whenever there’s a problem, God produced somebody.”

In spite of the many thousands of addicts cured with Matt’s help – up to 40,000 people go through the American Matt Talbot Retreat Movement every year – the Vatican is looking for a physical miracle. With advances in medical science these are very difficult to come by.

Any suggestion of a miracle attributable to Matt’s intervention goes first to Fr Costelloe and, if it’s worthwhile, on to the Vatican. Despite what Fr Costelloe labels “close calls” his search continues.

Fr Costelloe’s housekeeper thinks his search is in vain.

“That feller will never perform a physical miracle, he’s too busy looking after his boozing mates,” she told him.

It is in his very ordinariness that so many see Matt as inspiration.

When he began the task, Fr Costelloe met people who had known Matt Talbot early in their lives.

“One lady said to me one day: ‘I knew Matt Talbot, and he couldn’t be a saint’.

“I asked ‘why not?’ and she said: ‘Because he didn’t look like one’.

“I asked, ‘what did he look like?’ and she gave me a wonderful answer: ‘He looked like one of us’.”

Source: http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/01/oct/7/story_6.html

Note: Fr. Morgan Costelloe, author of "Matt Talbot: Hope for Addicts" (1987; 2001) and "The Mystery of Matt Talbot" (1981) is now retired, and Fr. Brian Lawless is the current Vice- Postulator for the Cause of Venerable Matt Talbot.
Key to Matt Talbot's recovery from alcoholism was turning his life over to the care of God.

Photograph of Matt Talbot and Co-Workers

Note: Fr. Morgan Costelloe, former Vice-Postulator of the Cause of Venerable Matt Talbot, states in his publication that "the book cover photograph was taken in T & C Martin's [timber yard on the docks] about 1918. Matt Talbot is on the extreme left." The book publisher is Messenger Publications, Dublin, 1981 and is available through Matt Talbot Retreats ( Matt Talbot Retreat Movement, Inc. LITERATURE ORDER FORM

The "head shot" (below) of Matt is cropped from this group photograph.