The path of grace with Father Ed Dowling
”The AA program is a slow seeping of God into the thirsty soul of the alcoholic.”
M— Father Ed Dowling ost people can point to someone in their life who changed them for the better, a coach, a pastor, a teacher, a mentor. We rely on these personal heroes in times of trouble. As we get older, we may even become a mentor to someone who needs us. A new biography called
“Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.’s Spiritual Sponsor” by Dawn
Eden Goldstein gives us a comprehensive history of a unique mentor who straddled the religious and secular worlds to help others.
Dr. Goldstein’s research delves into the life and enduring legacy of Father Ed Dowling. Her carefully footnoted book tells his full story for perhaps the first time.
Born in 1898 in St. Louis, Edward Dowling was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1931. The biography depicts an outgoing man who was interested in and open to everyone he met and who never missed an opportunity to minister to and mentor others. Father Ed is a familiar figure to the friends of Bill W., which is how members of Alcoholics Anonymous often identify themselves. Bill Wilson, a founder of the AA movement, relied on the counsel of Father Ed, although Bill himself was not Catholic. The AA 12-Step program, in fact, makes an effort not to be affiliated with any organized religion, instead relying on the alcoholic’s relationship to “God as we understood him,” as defined in Step Three.
The book lays out the many similarities between the 12 Steps of AA and the 30-Day Spiritual
Exercises of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). These similarities proved a startling discovery for both Bill W. and for Father Ed, and bolstered a friendship that began in 1940. Some parallels: Each philosophy relies on a foundational text, the Big Book of AA and the Bible. They each present principles to walking a path of grace through self-examination, a conversion experience, and service to others. Ignatian practice advocates for a daily “examen,” or a guided examination of conscience, corresponding to AA’s “searching and fearless moral inventory” (Step Four).
Both require that one make amends for wrongs one has done and to those one has injured. They each recommend an experienced person, called a sponsor in AA and a spiritual director in Ignatian spirituality, to accompany both newcomers and longtime practitioners. Both focus on living one’s daily life by “finding God in all things” (Jesuit exercise) and by “practicing these principles in all our affairs” (AA Step 12). The book’s comparison is detailed and illuminating.
Father Ed seemed to embody a human bridge between Ignatian spirituality and AA. We also learn that Father Ed was a man before his time, being a trailblazer in ministry to populations that had not been much considered by the pre-Vatican-II Catholic Church, such as married couples, prisoners, women who mourned a miscarriage, and young future voters (back when the U.S. voting age was 21). In addition to his attentiveness to alcoholics, he fought against racism and advocated for the laity. He was drawn to those who struggle on the margins.
In spite of his own physical suffering throughout his adult life from a crippling type of arthritis, he truly modeled the love, compassion and inclusion taught by Jesus himself.
Father Ed, who died in 1960, is possibly on the path to sainthood.
Those who have participated in a 12-step group for any kind of addiction appreciate the timetested value of these programs. They literally save lives. If we have never availed ourselves of the help these groups offer, we still understand the importance of a mentor.
Some of us find our counselors through the practice of our faith. Nonreligious folks similarly turn to people of wisdom for life-changing guidance.
Most of our mentors never become saints like Ignatius or household names like Bill W. They are more like Father Ed, unassuming souls with giant hearts. We owe them our gratitude. We honor them, consciously and quietly, by the way we remember all they’ve taught us, and by the way we live our lives.