ELKTON, Md. — Lucy Sneeringer had an unhealthy relationship with food for decades, fighting an addiction to eating for as long as she can remember. She reached what she considers rock bottom in October 2022, followed by the beginning of her recovery that continues today.
“One night, at the culmination, I’m in my car, I had this giant binge,” Sneeringer recalled recently. “I had plastic stuff all around me from stuff I had eaten, and I felt so sick physically and emotionally. I just cried out loud to the Lord, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’
“It was just horrible, the way that I was living my life.”
A lifelong Catholic, Sneeringer found Catholic in Recovery, which approaches recovery through a lens of faith and the sacraments, according to the founder, Scott Weeman. In a phone interview from California, Weeman said he believed the Catholic Church and the 12-step recovery approach could learn a lot from each other.
Sneeringer was so inspired by what she found in her virtual meetings with the organization that this past May she began holding in-person meetings at Immaculate Conception Church in Elkton, Md., where she lives.
Catholic in Recovery supplements traditional 12-step programs, but it makes the Catholic faith a prominent part of the program. Weeman said. Attendees can speak freely about their faith — the sacraments, Scripture, devotions — “things that might be considered too specific and are considered out of bounds” in a traditional 12-step group, he said.
Weeman, a recovering alcoholic, started Catholic in Recovery in 2015 with a series of blog posts. About six months in, he began work on a book.
“In the meantime, I began doing some speaking locally in San Diego, which is where I found sobriety,” he said.
Sneeringer, 57, and a member of St. Peter Cathedral Parish in Wilmington, said on that night in her car in October 2022, she turned on EWTN Radio and heard an interview with Weeman.
“The very next day, I went to my first virtual meeting, and I haven’t looked back since then,” Sneeringer said.
She found love and acceptance in Catholic in Recovery. A woman from that first meeting got in touch with her afterward and helped her put together a food plan and a recovery plan.
The virtual meeting she attended is one of about 75 sponsored each week by CIR. They cover addictions of any kind. Some are for men or women only. Sneeringer continued to attend her virtual Catholic in Recovery meetings, along with an in-person local meeting for food addiction.
“Between the two programs, God has relieved me from my addiction,” she said.
Sneeringer, who also attends Immaculate Conception in Elkton, attended a retreat in Alabama, “and it was amazing. The retreats are very different. They’re very special.”
The retreat included meetings, workshops, Mass and the sacraments, and adoration.
While in Alabama, she mentioned to the organizers that it would be great to have something like that closer to her home in Cecil County, Md. They asked her to organize one.
The first women’s retreat was held a few springs ago in Malvern, Pa., and about a year ago, Sneeringer felt the urge to attend meetings in person locally. The closest one was about two hours away. Following the death of her mother last fall, she was praying for guidance and felt it was OK to start a local chapter of Catholic in Recovery.
She also organized the annual women’s retreat in Malvern this past March. She approached Father Rich Jasper, the pastor of Immaculate Conception, about hosting CIR, and she asked him to pray for the women who would be attending the retreat. Father Jasper had never heard of the organization, but he was intrigued.
“He said right there and then, ‘Do you need a priest for the weekend?’” Sneeringer recalled.
Father Jasper drove up to Malvern and was available for confession for the attendees. By the end of May, Immaculate Conception had hosted its first Catholic in Recovery meeting.
The experience at the retreat stuck with Father Jasper.
“It was such a powerful experience with these women who had battled addictions and are really striving to walk with the Lord in the midst of everything. It was a beautiful moment,” he said.
Father Jasper said Sneeringer’s passion for this project was apparent. He was happy to be able to provide a place for a meeting and whatever support the parish can provide.
“One of the things a parish should do is have a prayer support or a way for people to come together, especially when they are carrying crosses or struggle with challenges in life. I think the church should be in those places where people do struggle,” he said.
Now the group meets every Thursday evening in the parish center. It is open to those with addictions of any kind and at any stage. Their family members also are welcome. Catholic in Recovery participants are also encouraged to attend a main program, Sneeringer said. CIR also has approximately 75 virtual meetings each week.
“For we Catholics, our church is just such a vital beautiful part of who we are. It’s wonderful when you can incorporate everything into the path to recovery,” she said.
The meetings last an hour. After the recitation of the Serenity Prayer, they talk about the spiritual principles of the meeting. The 12 steps of the traditional programs are always posted. There is also a reflection on the upcoming Sunday gospel and how it relates to recovery. The meetings also include the Lord’s Prayer. Participants can choose to share as much or as little as they want, according to Sneeringer. The meetings finish with the Prayer of St. Francis.
“This is a place for us to speak and to feel supported hearing the testimonies of others. We’re not judged. We are simply there to be supported, to hear stories of other people in their walks through recovery, and then to make connections with other people as well,” said Sneeringer, a graduate of Holy Angels School and Saint Mark’s High School.
The organization also has retreats like the one Sneeringer attended in Alabama, which she said was “amazing.”
Sneeringer was so influenced by Catholic in Recovery that she joined the organization as a part-time ministry coordinator. She said the work has helped with her recovery. She wants to help remove the shame that many addicts feel.
She hopes to see if Catholic in Recovery can spread throughout the Diocese of Wilmington. Other dioceses have meetings for specific addictions or targeted to a specific gender.
“My hope would be that this will spread like wildfire. It’s so needed. It’s one of those things where you don’t want to be a member of that club. But, knowing that it’s such a problem, if the supports are there to be activated, it would be wonderful to see that grow.
