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Paulist Father Terry Ryan led addiction recovery Zoom workshops from his pandemic location at a parish in Boulder, Colorado. The priest is in longtime residence at Old St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.
April 24, 2020
Christina Gray
Catholic San FranciscoPaulist Father Terry Ryan is hosting Zoom workshops for alcoholics and others in recovery, emphasizing contemplative prayer and meditation and its fundamental role in sober living in these uncertain times.
Catholic San Francisco spoke with Father Ryan by phone from his pandemic outpost at a parish in Boulder, Colorado, where he is currently living away from his longtime residence at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco.
“I’m a Paulist Father who can’t go home,” Father Ryan, who led “The 12-step way in COVID-19 times,” on Zoom April 25, said. He'll be hosting a similar Zoom workshop on May 3.
The 12-step approach is often identified with Alcoholics Anonymous, which was founded in 1935 by two alcoholics on spiritual principles outlined in each step of recovery.
“Old St. Mary’s is sort of AA central,” said Father Ryan, a priest for 40 years who has focused on studying and teaching contemplative and centering prayer and meditation. The Chinatown church hosts dozens of 12-step meetings each week, he said.
Father Ryan recited the 11th step of recovery to illustrate the affinity between the recovery program and contemplative prayer.“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," he stated.
Before the novel coronavirus outbreak, Father Ryan had for many years presented workshops for those in recovery as part of his pastoral ministry, including at a church in San Rafael .
Like so many other public gatherings in the wake of the pandemic shutdown, the scheduled workshops were converted into virtual ones through the technology of Zoom, which requires only a computer or cell-phone and an internet connection.
The common denominator is addiction, said Father Ryan.“Everybody is either in recovery, was in recovery or seeks recovery,” he said, speaking of those with compulsions for alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography and more.
As he does in his in-person workshops, Father Ryan will wear his clerical collar and “not disguise that I am a Catholic priest.” But he said he is careful when sharing how the church’s long tradition of contemplative prayer can improve the lives of participants.
“With something like this, you could have somebody who has recently stopped drinking and has no real relationship with anything of a God, or someone upset with organized religion,” he said.
He said he doesn’t want to "lose people” who need to discover a spiritual road to recovery by telling them what they must do or not do.
“I will say something like, in my tradition, which happens to be a Catholic one, here is something that we practice,” he said. “It’s a very gentle way of opening them up.”
He said people who identify themselves as someone who “used to be Catholic” may be reluctant about what a priest is offering.
“But then they are looking at someone who is offering them something that can help them and he happens to be a Catholic priest,” he said. “It’s a way to begin to reconnect some people who might be open to being reconnected to the church.”
Group meeting fellowship is a central part of AA and the organization is using digital platforms like Zoom as a substitute as long as social distancing is a reality according to its website, aa.org.
On the current home page which announces the temporary closure of group meetings amid the pandemic lockdown, the organization also reminds visitors that AA is “not just a ‘place,' but exists in the hearts, minds and help offered.”
“Richard,” who requested anonymity for this story, is a 34-years-sober alcoholic in San Rafael who is coordinating the Zoom workshops with Father Ryan.
Once in seminary training for the priesthood, Richard said that from his perspective, those in recovery are in many ways well equipped to handle pandemic shutdown restrictions and losses.
“Many of us are having much less trouble with this crisis than other people,” he said. Much less, he said, because those who stay in the program and remain sober are practicing spiritual principals in their daily lives.
“When something like this comes along, we have an accepted reliance on God, or as many of us call it, a higher power,” he said. “We realize at our core this is just one more among many things that are beyond our individual control."
Contact ollipops@comcast.net for more information about the Zoom meetings.