Church offers lifeline to those suffering from addiction

By Karen Baker, Clarion Herald Contributing writer

Twenty agencies involved in helping with the issue of alcohol and drug abuse were on hand at Mary Queen of Peace Church Sept. 27 as Catholic Charities and the Substance Addiction Ministry (SAM) presented the third of six planned workshops titled, “You Are Not Alone.” 

The workshops will be presented throughout the archdiocese to help both those struggling with addiction as well as their loved ones.

“We started the series this year to give people information on what’s available in their area,” said Mark Taliancich, clinical director of Counseling Solutions for Catholic Charities.

The first two workshops took place at St. Dominic in New Orleans and St. Margaret Mary in Slidell. Three more are planned this year at St. Angela Merici in Metairie, at St. Joseph in Gretna and at St. Charles Borromeo in Destrehan, Taliancich said.

Kevin Gardere, director of development for Bridge House and Grace House, shared his story with the nearly 100 people in attendance. The youngest of five children, Gardere was a basketball coach who began drinking at a young age. On top of that, he said, he was in an automobile accident that led him to become addicted to painkillers.

Spiraled out of control

“Things got worse and worse,” he said. “I spent 13 years wondering how I could get through the day without people knowing.”

Finally, he said, it got so bad that he knew that he would “have to swallow a bullet or ask for help.”

That’s when he asked for help and he found Bridge House, a long-term residential treatment facility in New Orleans.

“We are a family at Bridge House,” Gardere said. “It takes a ton of courage to enter the doors; it takes more courage to enter a second time, which I had to do.”

Gardere said he has been sober since Oct. 28, 2001. “None of it would be possible without Bridge House and Grace House.”

Now Gardere is working where he was healed, and he wants people to know what it takes to get past their struggles.

“We want people to complete four goals,” Gardere said. They are: Stay clean and sober; have a job; have a safe place to stay; and have a strong network outside of Bridge House and Grace House. 

Stepping into unknown

Deacon Louis Bauer, who started the Substance Addiction Ministry at St. Margaret Mary in Slidell, is familiar with Bridge House, where he ministered for several months during his third year of formation in the permanent diaconate. 

“It was intimidating in my mind,” he said. “I thought I would walk into Bridge House and see drunks on the ground … this was my twisted, warped perception.”

After spending six to seven months as chaplain, Deacon Bauer said, he learned to love the people of Bridge House. He tells the story of a large tattooed man who pulled out a St. Jude prayer card.

“His name was Howard,” Deacon Bauer said. “He was somebody’s son, somebody’s dad, he was somebody.”

Addiction, Deacon Bauer said, is not a moral weakness. “It is clothed in shame; it is a brain disease.” It is also, he said, a spiritual disease. “It disconnects us from who God created us to be.”

It’s important for those struggling with addiction to find support, Deacon Bauer said. “Education is paramount; we need to educate communities.” That’s the focus of these workshops, he added, to educate people and provide them with the resources they need.

Deacon Bauer, who was ordained in 2006, served at Southeast Louisiana Hospital in the addiction unit, and in 2011 he met a man, Erik Vagenius, from Palm Beach, Florida, who had started the Substance Addiction Ministry. Deacon Bauer worked to bring SAM to Slidell at St. Margaret Mary. Not long after that, Sam and Nettie Burguieries of Mandeville brought SAM to Mary Queen of Peace in Mandeville.

So many impacted

In beginning the program, Deacon Bauer said, he was struck by the number of people who responded that they or someone they knew had been affected by addiction.

“Jesus spent most of his time with outcasts, with rejects, unwanted, modern-day lepers,” Deacon Bauer said. The church, then, must recognize what Pope Francis has called the “deep wound” of addiction. “We have this hole inside of us,” he said. “If we don’t know it’s God, we fill it with something else. Once we decide he is it, all else falls into place.”

The Substance Addiction Ministry is open to people of all faiths, Deacon Bauer said, to offer hope and healing. There are only three ways out of addiction: treatment, incarceration or death. “There is hope; there is hope sitting at these tables,” he added. “Don’t give up.”

Two other experts gave presentations at the workshop. Dr. Ken Roy, a professor at Tulane University Medical School and founder of Addiction Recovery Resource, told the crowd that addiction is a genetic predisposition. He wants people to know: “You didn’t cause it, and it’s not your fault.”

He also emphasized that addiction is treatable. He also laid out the grim statistics, stating that 70,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2017.

“What’s horrible about this,” he said, is that for the most part these are people “beginning the most productive part of their lives. It’s just tragic.”

John Antonucci, clinical director of Longbranch recovery center in Abita Springs and Metairie, offered information about treatment options and spoke from experience.

“I spent 12 years in recovery,” Antonucci said. “It is a big part of who I am. Recovery is possible.”

For more information on substance addiction presentations or resources, contact Catholic Counseling Service at 861-6245 or email [email protected].

Karen Baker can be reached at [email protected].