CALIFORNIAN Dominican priest Fr Emmerich Vogt will be in Brisbane next week to speak on the 12-Step Program from Alcoholics Anonymous, a program that changed his life.
In San Francisco during the mid-1980s, Fr Vogt was advised by a wise woman to take the 12-Step Program run by Al-Anon.
But it was odd advice to give to a man who was not even an alcoholic.
“She knew from experience that when she clicked with a person, it was likely that they were from a family with a background of addiction,” he said.
“We clicked, and so she asked me if I came from a family with addictions.”
Initially taken aback by her insight, Fr Vogt confirmed that several of his family members were afflicted with mental illness, drug addiction, sex addictions and alcoholism.
“She was so wise, and I thought, ‘I’ll take her advice and do the 12-Step Program by Al-Anon’,” he said.
“It changed my life.
“It gives you practical wisdom for life, having been developed from over 2000 years of lived Christian experience.”
A Dominican for 45 years, Fr Vogt said the 12-Step Program helped him to understand the deep need for peace and healing in people’s lives, especially those who grew up surrounded by or caught up in addictions.
Wanting to share the program with others, Fr Vogt began doing talks on the 12-Step Program in his parish in Portland, Oregon.
“But I didn’t want people to think that it was only for alcoholics, so I changed the name to just ‘spirituality’,” he said.
“When the talks were finished, people asked me to do it again, so we did it the next year and got twice as many people.”
The numbers and the need increased, and with his vocational allowance, Fr Vogt created a newsletter further explaining the benefits of the 12-Steps.
Now known as the 12-Step Review, Fr Vogt’s newsletter reaches 8000 people in 30 countries.
The apostolate also sells Fr Vogt’s CDs and his book, The Freedom to Love: Recovery and the Seven Deadly Sins.
Fr Vogt will speak on:
- Monday, July 8: 6.30pm at Faith on Tap at the Pineapple Hotel, Woolloongabba
- Wednesday, July 10: 9am Mass followed by 9.30am-2.30pm – Half-day retreat at St Michael’s, 250 Banks St, Dorrington, Brisbane
- Thursday, July 11: 5.30-7pm – Talk at Francis Rush Centre, next to St Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane
