Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor by Dawn Eden Goldstein (review)

Reviewed by: Father Ed: The Story of Bill W. 's Spiritual Sponsor by Dawn Eden Goldstein Raymond Studzinski OSB Father Ed: The Story of Bill W. 's Spiritual Sponsor. By Dawn Eden Goldstein. Mary knoll, NY: Orbis, 2022. 244pp. 30. 00. Successful social and political movements owe much to their initiators but also to significant behind-the-scenes individuals who, through their input, keep the program going at critical moments in its development. Dawn Eden Goldstein has done a masterful job in directing attention to Father Ed Dowling, SJ, (1898–1960), a figure whose life is largely unknown but who had a powerful impact during his lifetime on people struggling with addictions, emotional issues, and troubled relationships through his association with Alcoholics Anonymous, Cana Conferences, and Recovery Inc. Dowling was a St. Louis Jesuit priest who became a spiritual advisor to Bill Williams, a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. He sought out Williams after he had read Alcoholics Anonymous, the "Big Book, " and corresponded with him as Dowling set up an AA group in St. Louis. When Father Ed had his initial meeting with Wilson at an AA clubhouse in End Page 70 Manhattan in 1940, five years after AA was founded, Wilson was at a low point, worn out physically and emotionally from his work for the movement. Father Ed was not an alcoholic but had experiences earlier in life that prepared him to empathize and speak to those who struggled with addiction, mental disorders, and relational difficulties. That fateful meeting with Dowling rejuvenated Wilson and began a mutually enriching friendship. In this moving and impeccably researched biography, Goldstein describes in some detail Father Ed's early years growing up in the Baden neighborhood of St. Louis in a second-generation Irish-American family. As a youth, he immersed himself in baseball and other sports and became an avid reader of newspapers. His interest in journalism led him to work as a reporter at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and that work fanned the flames of his interest in politics and the democratic process. The Jesuits and the priesthood were not prominently on his mind at this point, even though the possibility had been mentioned to him, and he felt some attraction to the Jesuit priesthood. In September of 1919, Dowling entered the Jesuit novitiate at Florissant, Missouri. Goldstein offers an overview of the pre-Vatican II Jesuit approach to formation as she comments on Dowling's time in formation. The following two years would provide him with an experience of the spiritual ups and downs that made his life as a Jesuit difficult, further complicated by the beginning of ankylosing spondylosis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the spine and joints. His lifelong suffering due to stiffness and his experience of spiritual desolation provided the context for discovering God amid darkness. He shared what he had learned with countless others in a ministry that touched those who sought him out for assistance in their struggles. Goldstein indicates the breadth and diversity of Dowling's ministerial outreach and how his work with AA confirmed that he was where God wanted him to be. Dowling had hoped to do doctoral studies focused on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. However, after his ordination to the priesthood in 1931, he was assigned to The Queen's Work, a Jesuit apostolate set up to provide a journal publishing articles of interest to all Catholics. Dowling, a prolific writer, would eventually become editor of the periodical The Queen's Work, succeeding Father Daniel Lord, SJ. Besides promoting AA, Father Ed, in his writings and speeches, addressed topics such as racial justice, democracy, poverty, liturgical participation, and the universal call to holiness. His prophetic voice advocated positions Vatican II would endorse in its constitutions and decrees. Throughout his life, he exhibited humility, a deep dependence on God, and a passionate desire to serve anyone in need. "When people heard Father Ed speak, " Goldstein notes, "they came away with the End Page 71 hope that no matter how messy their lives might be, God cared about them and was with them, to help them grow and heal" (224). What struck Dowling early on when he. . .