#12502 How Can I Return to The Church? Addiction and Recovery AMA - Scott Weeman

Catholic Answers Live

Catholic Answers

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“How can I return to the Church?” This question is central for many facing addiction and recovery. In this episode, we also address concerns about balancing church attendance with recovery meetings, the role of the 12-step program in relation to Catholicism, and the nature of compulsions in alcoholism.

Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter

Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com

Questions Covered:

03:00 – How does someone with addiction come back to Church?
12:30 – I have a sponsor who thinks I’m going to Church too much and not enough to attend meetings. What is your advice?
18:38 – I have a brother in recovery. Is the 12-step program a substitute for Catholicism?
23:08 – How common are compulsions in alcoholism? Can they eventually become an OCD problem?
30:35 – Why do AA meetings refer to God as high power?
37:23 – How do you stay sober?
41:40 – I’ve been to CIR meetings, I love the fact that it is Catholic!
45:20 – What’s your opinion on Anne Grace and the help she offers?
49:16 – I’m a recovering addict and am Catholic. What ways do you think we can build our community back in 12-step programs?
52:32 – Have you read Fulton Sheen’s description of alcoholism?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent.
0:05.8	When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers.
0:11.5	Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Welcome back to Catholic Answers live.
0:31.6	Great having a good Christmas conversation.
0:33.6	And this Christmas, as Christmas approaches, you know,
0:36.9	we've got so many celebrations and things going on and, Christmas, as Christmas approaches, you know, we've got so many celebrations and things going on and all kinds of feelings come up.
0:43.3	This is a good time to talk about addiction and recovery.
0:46.2	It's not a bad time to talk about it because it's an affliction of our society, perhaps an affliction of all societies.
0:53.3	I don't know. But the Lord is a
0:56.1	healer. Jesus loves everybody, and he's got all kinds of ways of reaching out and helping us with
1:02.5	our addictions, with our obsessions, with our compulsions, and someone who's doing great work in that
1:09.4	area is Scott Weeman, our guest this hour.
1:11.7	If you have questions for Scott, 8883187-884, maybe you've got questions about making it through the holidays.
1:19.2	Maybe you got questions about, hey, I've got an alcoholic in the family.
1:22.6	What am I supposed to do for the Christmas party?
1:24.6	Can I have alcohol?
1:26.2	Whatever your question might be. Scott is the guy to
1:29.5	talk to about it. 8883187884. He is the founder of Catholic in Recovery. He is the author of
1:37.8	the 12 Steps and the Sacraments. Scott Weiman, welcome.
1:42.1	I'm pleasure to join you tonight, Si. Do people ask you that?
1:44.7	Do people say to you, Scott, you know, so-and-so is in recovery in my family. Should I have alcohol out or should I not have alcohol for the holidays? You get that question? I think that's a legitimate question to ask. Yeah, that's a question that I get. And what do you say to those people? I don't think there's a right or wrong way to go about it.
2:02.9	Okay.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Catholic Answers, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Catholic Answers and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.