Sobriety & Beyond

Alcoholics Anonymous-

This 387 page hardback book by Father John Doe covers a 10 year period that the author worked with alcoholics.
Copy written in 1955, this book is the 29th printing in 1985.
 

SMT GUILD= SONS OF MATT TALBOT GUILD
The Golden Records of Father John Doe click here for other page

 SOBRIETY AND BEYOND by Father John Doe, hardcover/dustjacket, SMT Guild, 1977, 18th printing, 387 pages.

SOBRIETY AND BEYOND was written over a period of ten years, during which time the author devoted all of his time among members of Alcoholic Anonymous. The theme of the volume is to bring into focus and express in common, clear language and phrases the "spiritual thread of Alcoholics Anonymous." The author guides the reader into the phase of happy living and peace of mind and soul that follows Beyond Sobriety. Originally compiled for alcoholics and members of Alcoholics Anonymous, the author, although a Catholic priest, is still simply one of the thousands of John and Jane Does of A.A.

Sobriety Without End

In this popular successor to 'Sobriety and Beyond' the author freely discusses the everyday problems that beset the paths of the unwary. Serenity is the key to long-term sobriety and Father Doe explains how to get it nurture it and keep it for a lifetime. Father Doe believes that by continually growing both mentally and spiritually we strengthen our sobriety and prepare ourselves to deal with all the challenges life has in store for us.

SMT GUILD= SONS OF MATT TALBOT GUILD

Alcoholics Anonymous. Sobriety Without End. Father John Doe. 1957. Hardbound with Dust Jacket. AA talks given by a Priest to groups

more about Father John Doe-Ralph Pfau
Click here audio page
 

Father John Doe Photos of Records

Father Ralph Pfau Author of Sobriety & Beyond & Golden books

Fr. Ralph Pfau, aka Fr. John Doe
Author of "Sobriety Without End" and "Sobriety and Beyond"
By Nancy O.  reprinted with permission

Tue Feb 19, 2002

Today is the anniversary of Fr. Ralph Pfau's death. He 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, but 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

Sixth National Archives Workshop at Louisville KY, Sept. 27-30, 2001. Handout for the 10:30-11:45 a.m. Saturday session presentation by Glenn F. Chesnut (Prof. of History & Religious Studies, Indiana University South Bend), home address 316 Parkovash Ave., South Bend IN 46617; phone 219 233-7211; e-mail gfchesnut@msn.com; web page www.iusb.edu/~gchesnut.

 

    The three most-published A.A. authors during the course of A.A.'s first sixty years have been Bill W., Richmond Walker (who wrote the Twenty-Four Hours a Day book), and Ralph Pfau, author of the fourteen Golden Books.
    Father Ralph Pfau (November 10, 1904-February 19, 1967), who was a Roman Catholic priest, is our local hero in this part of the country: He spent years serving parishes in Indianapolis and southern Indiana, some of them quite near where we are having this workshop (like Jeffersonville, which is literally right next door, from 1935-1937). He gave the keynote address at the first Kentucky A.A. Conference in Louisville, Kentucky right across the river, almost exactly fifty years ago--that in particular adds a nice anniversary touch to this particular workshop session.
    In my part of the country, the spirituality of everyone in the early A.A. groups was shaped at a deep level by Richmond Walker's Twenty-Four Hour book, which was read from during the formal meetings themselves. But many of the most dedicated also held meetings after the meetings, in people's homes, to study Father Ralph's latest Golden Book. One old-timer from my area says that when he first came in, he soon began to notice that all the old-timers who had really quality sobriety and serenity were fans of Father Ralph. They read his books over and over, and travelled hundreds of miles to hear him speak or just to talk with him privately. Something special about him and his message was communicated to them in this fashion, which inspired them in turn to become more and more deeply spiritual in their own everyday lives.
    Ralph and Richmond Walker played a complementary role in early A.A. Rich wrote about the inner life of the spirit, and taught recovering people how to make genuine contact with a higher power, down in the depths of their hearts and souls. Ralph wrote about the active life in the world, and taught recovering people how to rise up from their meditations and begin taking concrete action, so that they could serve as channels of God's grace to this outside world. Rich taught us how to be silent and listen, while Ralph taught us how to make authentic decisions and then make a real commitment. Between the two of them, early A.A.'s had a marvellous pair of teachers, who taught them how to deal with the two halves of their lives, the inner and the outer.
    Ralph was the first Roman Catholic priest to get sober in Alcoholics Anonymous (he came in on November 10, 1943), and under the pen name which he chose to use, Father John Doe, he wrote his fourteen Golden Books back in the 1940's and 50's and early 60's. They are still being read and used by A.A.'s today:

 

They were coming out once a year at the beginning, but then he was slowed down as he also published three much longer books: Sobriety and Beyond (1955), Sobriety Without End (1957), and an autobiography, which he entitled Prodigal Shepherd, in 1958 (a shorter version of this ran as a three-part series in Look magazine).
    He also issued a set of thirty recordings in which he spoke on various issues, including No. 11 "Father John Doe--Alcoholic," No. 22 "The Lord's Prayer," No. 2 "Alcoholism--Sin or Disease," and Nos. 23-26 "The Twelve Steps." He spoke on these recordings with a flamboyant oldtime preacher's style: his high voice, with its sharp- toned southern Indiana accent, could belt through to the back of a church without benefit of microphone, and knock any drowsy parishioners on the back pews out of their slow drift into sleep! His four-recording series on the Twelve Steps, in particular, is still as useful today for groups doing step studies as when he first gave them.
    He invented the A.A. weekend spiritual retreat, and held the first one ever given at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana in June 1946. It was repeated the next year at the same location on the weekend of June 6-8, 1947, and a small booklet was printed to give the participants as a souvenir of their time together. He wanted a fancy cover for it, so his printer came up with some card stock covered with gold foil. This was why they came to be called the Golden Books. This first one was the Spiritual Side, which was so successful that people began asking for additional copies in large numbers. From then until 1955, in each subsequent year, he produced another booklet on that year's retreat theme, and so the Golden Book series came into being.
    Ralph criss-crossed the United States and Canada from one side to the other, leading similar weekend spiritual retreats, and giving talks as an A.A. conference speaker. His cross-country journeys began as what was intended to be a simple, relaxing vacation in the Spring of 1948, driving from Indianapolis to southern California by the Texas route, but mushroomed from there, as A.A. groups, desperate for good, solid spiritual teaching, began asking him to speak, and then come back the next year and speak again. In his autobiography he talks about his extensive journeys from 1948 to 1958:

 

At the point when he was beginning these travels (in 1948-49) he also founded the Catholic Clergy Conference on Alcoholism, which served a variety of useful purposes. It brought the message to priests and nuns who were themselves suffering from alcoholism, it helped to draw the benefits of the program to the attention of parish priests who could recommend it to parishioners who were alcoholics, and most important of all, it helped to keep the Roman Catholic bishops all over the United States favorably disposed towards A.A.

 

November 10, 1904: Ralph Pfau born in Indianapolis, youngest of five brothers.

 

1922: Graduated from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, and in September began studying for the priesthood at St. Meinrad Seminary down in Spencer county, Indiana, about twelve miles north of the great Ohio river.

1928-29: First total breakdown. In the fifth year at seminary, the students who remained had to make an irrevocable decision. They were ordained as subdeacons and then as deacons on successive days. If you left seminary after that point, the normal rules were that you could never marry, and there was a deep cloud over you as far as good lay Catholics were concerned. Then one year later, they were ordained as priests.

 

May 20, 1929: The night before his ordination to the priesthood, he came down with a 104 temperature and had a complete nervous and physical breakdown, but was ordained priest anyway the next morning, sitting on a chair instead of standing and kneeling like the rest.

1929-33: Assistant pastor at the Old Cathedral in Vincennes IN, also taught Latin at Gibault High School which was connected with the cathedral. Vincennes is a very old town with a history, located along the Wabash river on the southwestern border of Indiana. The oldest building is a French log home from 1790, and there is also a Territorial Capital building which was used for territorial assemblies from 1800 to 1813.

Summer 1930: Went to Fordham University, run by the Jesuits, in New York city, to begin working on his masters degree.

 

Fall 1932: The head pastor at the Old Cathedral decided to use brothers instead of priests to do all the teaching at Gibault High School; Ralph was now out of his teaching job, which he loved. He developed a massive resentment, and began drinking every evening.

 

Summer 1933: The second total breakdown. Sent first to St. Vincent's, the big hospital in Indianapolis, and then to a sani tarium in St. Louis.

1933-34: Finally sent to New York for a full year, as a kind of rest cure, to finish his masters degree.

 

1934-35: Assistant pastor at St. Anthony's in Indianapolis.

1935-37: Assistant pastor at St. Augustine's in Jeffersonville IN, the river town immediately to the east of Clarksville, where we are holding our workshop. He often crossed the river to visit the big city of Louisville, where he had strong connections from this point to the end of his life.

The Great 1937 Flood: Submerged much of downtown Louisville, and also the towns on the Indiana side.

 

1937-39: St. Bernard's in Snake Run, in Gibson County, over in the extreme southwestern corner of Indiana. A country church, with a house for the priest next door, with peeling paint, no electricity, and no running water.

 

1939: The third total breakdown. Some of his parishioners complained to the bishop about his drinking, and he was removed from his pastorate.

 

1939-42: Assistant pastor at Holy Rosary in Indianapolis. In late 1940 he started drinking again.

December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor, many priests began being shifted to different posts.

1942-3: Appointed pastor of St. Anne's in Indianapolis, but self-destructed within a year.

1943: The fourth total breakdown. In May, the bishop removed him from this parish and sent him to a sanitarium in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

 

1943-5: Asst. pastor at St. Joan of Arc's in Indianapolis.

 

Fall 1943: Became the first Roman Catholic priest to get sober in A.A. Discovered a copy of the Big Book, began reading and re-reading it, and for some reason he could not understand, was able to stop drinking.

 

November 10, 1943 (thirty-ninth birthday):

 

The four major A.A. groups in Indiana at that time:

 

1945-7: Assistant pastor at Holy Cross in Indianapolis.

June 1946: The first weekend A.A. spiritual retreat, at St. Joseph's College at Rensselaer IN, up in the northwestern corner of Indiana, a rousing success.

 

June 6-8, 1947: The second weekend A.A. spiritual retreat at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer. The first of Ralph's fourteen Golden Books was printed as a memento for those who attended that retreat.

 

October 1947: The bishop of Indianapolis offered Ralph the opportunity to make A.A. his full-time work, if he could figure out how to support himself.

 

Christmas Day, 1947: Ralph moved to St. Bridget's rectory in Indianpolis, where he paid room and board.

Spring 1948: Dohr persuaded Ralph to take a vacation before trying anything major, and Ralph decided to drive out to Los Angeles on the west coast and back.

 

Nov. 1948-April 1949: Five months travelling constantly.

 

1950-his death in 1967: Chaplain of the Good Shepherd Convent in Indianapolis (where he was the "prodigal shepherd" in the title to his autobiography). A three-room suite for offices and printing equipment, and three nuns to serve as full- time secretaries, clerks, and printers.

1958: Wrote his autobiography, Ralph Pfau and Al Hirshberg, Prodigal Shepherd.

 

1964: The last two Golden Books, Sanctity and Living.

Feb. 19, 1967: On the road again, died on a Sunday in Our Lady of Mercy hospital in Owensboro, Kentucky, over on the south bank of the Ohio river, separated by just the river's width from his own beloved Indiana.

 

Sixth National Archives Workshop at Louisville KY, Sept. 27-30, 2001. Handout for the 10:30-11:45 a.m. Saturday session presentation by Glenn F. Chesnut (Prof. of History & Religious Studies, Indiana University South Bend), home address 316 Parkovash Ave., South Bend IN 46617; phone 574 233-7211; e-mail gfchesnut@msn.com; web page www.iusb.edu/~gchesnut.

The Golden Tapes
(Father Ralph Pfau)

#7701 Action - $5.50

#7702 Alcoholism - Sin or Disease? - $5.50

#7703 Anonymity - $5.50

#7704 Attitudes - $5.50

#7705 Death - A Meditation - $5.50

#7706 Decisions - $5.50

#7707 Easy Does It - $5.50

#7708 Excuses - $5.50

#7709 Honesty - $5.50

#7710 Humility - $5.50

#7711 Fr. John Doe Alcoholic - $5.50

#7712 Life is a Selfish Program - $5.50

#7713 Live and Let Live - $5.50

#7714 Myth of Perfection - $5.50

#7715 Paradox of Giving - $5.50

#7716 Principles - $5.50

#7717 Resentments - $5.50

#7718 Restore Us to Sanity - $5.50

#7719 A Sense of Humor - $5.50

#7720 Serenity - $5.50

#7721 Spiritual Side - $5.50

#7722 The Lord's Prayer - $5.50

#7723 Steps 1, 2 & 3 (of the 12 Steps) - $5.50

#7724 Steps 4, 5, & 6 (of the 12 Steps) - $5.50

#7725 Steps 7, 8, 9, & 10 (of the 12 Steps) - $5.50

#7726 Steps 11 & 12 (of the 12 Steps) - $5.50

#7727 Tolerance - $5.50

#7728 Weakness in Strength - $5.50

#7729 We're Not Different - $5.50

#7730 The Will of God - $5.50

#7731 Complete Set of 30 Tapes Encased in an Album - $140.00

#7732 Album containing the tapes of Humility, Will of God, Honesty, Steps 1-3, Resentments, and Attitudes - $30.00