Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor in Bloomington, MN

Father Ed is the first biography of Father Edward Dowling, SJ (1898–1960), whose guidance transformed Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson’s life and deepened the spirituality of the twelve-step movement. Trained as a journalist, Dowling was always drawn to those who were suffering—a sympathy enhanced by his own crippling infirmities—which led him to embrace the A.A. approach to healing in community. Father Ed is a portrait of the kind of priest Pope Francis has extolled as a “shepherd with the smell of the sheep.”