The following article was taken from
The Queen’s Work Magazine
Dated: June 1945, page 13
Father Dowling had his own column in this magazine.
Here is a copy of the original sent to me by Bryan P.
Alcoholics Anonymous
By Father Edward (Ed) Dowling
St. Ignatius in his rules for making a good decision recommends “Reckoning up, how many advantages and utilities follow for me . . . and, consider likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and dangers” that would come from making a certain decision.
One of the groups of Alcoholics Anonymous has a chart made by women alcoholics, which chart conforms fairly well to the suggestions that St. Ignatius makes. While it ignores the specific spiritual motivation, this spiritual motivation was the basis for this self-evaluation.
Alcoholics Anonymous are much more successful with people over forty than they are with people under thirty. They find very few high-bottom alcoholics. A high-bottom alcoholic is one who can see the bottom before he hits it. A low-bottom person is one who has to splash on the bottom before he is convinced that it exists.
On this page, we give an analysis by a woman alcoholic who has completed ten years of complete abstinence. The analysis was made before she stopped drinking. It is hoped that some alcoholic novices may use her experience and become high-bottom.
FACTUAL GAIN and LOSS CHART
ON UNCONTROLLED DRINKING
|
A.A.
Humiliation leading to humility leading to God’s promised help to the humble has prospered the growth of the Alcoholics Anonymous (Post office box 459, Grand Central Annex, New York 17) Their most recent report shows that they have 19,000 members in 535 centers in every state of the Union and Canada, Honolulu, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil. Archbishop Cushing of Boston recently spoke to the A.A.’s of Dorchester, Massachusetts, on their first anniversary. Archbishop Murry of St. Paul has addressed them many times.