DIVINE INTERVENTION –
Jan. 17, 2026 – Jan. 24 marked 55 years since the death of Bill Wilson, who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous along with Bob Smith. AA is firmly established in the culture’s imagination, particularly in the Anglosphere. But less well-known is the role the Catholic Church played in the development of the fellowship, and, in turn, how AA influences the faith of many Catholics today.
Accurate membership figures are hard to come by, given the fellowship’s guiding principle of anonymity. But there are more than 123,000 AA meetings in approximately 180 countries, with literature translated into more than 100 languages.
AA was founded in 1935. In 1936, there was only one Catholic member of the embryonic fellowship that would transform the treatment of alcoholics the world over. In 1939, there were two.
But in the period 1939 and 1940, the number of Catholic alcoholics joining AA grew enormously. By October 1940, Bill Wilson wrote in a letter that, “as matters now stand, I suppose AA is 25% Catholic.”
