Jesuits host major conference on addiction
A major conference on Addiction and the Family will take place in Manresa Jesuit Centre of Spirituality. The event, organized by the Jesuits in Manresa, is part of their ongoing response to the Bishop’s call last year to open up a nationwide debate on the issue of addiction in Ireland today.
Speakers will include Sr Consillio of the Cluan Mhuire Centers, Jack Holihan, author and addiction counsellor and Stephen Rowan of the Rutland Centre. Two sisters will tell their different stories of how addiction affected their family. One of them, a recovering alcoholic, is now an addiction counselor. The other will talk about her recovery from the destructive effects of her sister’s alcoholism.
According to Fr Paddy Carberry SJ, Director of Manresa, “It is estimated that for every person suffering from addiction there are at least eight people directly affected, be they children, parents, grandparents or friends. That means that a lot of families get sick too and this reality often goes unrecognized. Addiction is not just about the addict, it’s a family disease and we need to understand how families are affected so they can be helped to find their own recovery and the cycle of addiction can be broken. Through this conference we hope to make our contribution by increasing awareness and understanding and offering hope. We encourage the families and friends of people suffering from addictions of whatever kind, as well as addicts and practitioners, to come and add the expertise of their own experience to an issue which touches nearly every home and village in Ireland.”
1 November 2008