Church should work to reduce society's drug problems, archbishop says

Published: 2004-09-29

NEW YORK (CNS) -- During a conference on substance abuse, religion and spirituality, Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M., stressed that the church can take an active role in the prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol abuse. "The church seeks to be a sign of hope: to serve, to reach out, to help rebuild lives and to support individuals and families in their fight against drug and alcohol addiction," he said during a Sept. 22 conference in New York, sponsored by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Archbishop Sheehan, one of the keynote speakers, told participants that he became involved in the issue of substance abuse several years ago after leading a Good Friday pilgrimage that passed a crime scene of a young man and woman who had been killed by someone on drugs. The young couple had been on their way to a Catholic shrine north of Santa Fe for Good Friday services. "These senseless killings on Good Friday moved me to realize how terrible the substance abuse problem was," the archbishop said.

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