By Simon Stewart

“I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit is present at such gatherings. I have no doubt that the programme is a gift from the Holy Spirit. And I have an absolute conviction that our Church has no future without such a depth of compassion and healing”

‘This is the first time in my life I’ve been free.’ Simon (not his real name) was 24 and starting taking drugs when he was 14. Tough guy, shaved head, bent low with the ‘damage’ he’s done. How did this freedom come? Through a remarkable programme of rehabilitation called the ‘Twelve Steps’.

Most Fridays I spend an hour with a small group of men who have worked the programme. They reside, ‘at her majesty’s pleasure’ in Lancaster castle prison. I go as a guest of the catholic lay chaplain, Christine Townson, and together we run an ‘after-care’ group.

Those who join the group have gone through the most rigorous, soul-searching and effective programme of rehabilitation on offer for those seeking to break their addiction. For the lads in the prison, their main addiction is to alcohol or drugs, though they admit contributory addictions to image, to danger and to crime itself. In the course of regular involvement, I have come to recognise my own addictions to TV and to needing to be liked. As yet, I have to work through the programme!

It has become very clear to me that the basic tenets of the programme, though not overtly Christian, are as close to the basic steps of faith as could be. All 12-steppers have to admit their powerlessness over their addiction and instead hand their lives over to a ‘higher power’. They give time to that ‘higher power’ in daily meditation. They have to face up to the reality of their lives, admit the damage they have done and seek, where possible to make amends. They have to commit themselves to continue working this programme forever, and support others who are going through the same. Not unexpectedly, the change they experience is remarkable. I believe it is grace-filled and this grace flows out to those who come into contact with them.

As they move on to different stages of the programme they have ‘graduation’ ceremonies where they meet together as a group and affirm those who are to take the next steps. These are extraordinary gatherings, the like of which I have never experienced. About 20 men may gather. Many bear the scars of their lifestyles on their faces and bodies. Some are hunched and defeated. Others have the haunted look of people escaping from painful pasts. One by one, they give witness to what a particular prisoner has meant to them. There are tears, and, yes, the word ‘love’ is used often and meant. At the end, there are bear-like hugs and the ‘serenity prayer’ belted out like their very lives depend on it: ‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference’.

I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit is present at such gatherings. I have no doubt that the programme is a gift from the Holy Spirit. And I have an absolute conviction that our Church has no future without such a depth of compassion and healing. Indeed, the fruits of this programme remind me of something Pope John Paul II said: ‘We need heralds of the Gospel who are experts in humanity, who know the depth of the human heart, who have shared to the full the joys and hopes, the anguish and sadness of people today, but who are at the same time contemplatives who fallen in love with God.’

Like spirituality, the programme has to be worked day by day. The other week I met two former members of the group who have been out over a year. They are ‘clean’, have jobs and are getting their lives together. Simon got out of prison and ‘fell’ within the week. He needed someone to be there when he got out and we weren’t. I hope he’ll be back. I hope he’ll stop running from himself. I hope he’ll rediscover his ‘higher power’ in his life and know, in a way that will change him forever, that ‘he is fearfully and wonderfully made’.

THE TWELVE STEPS OF A.A.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than our selves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.