Tim Murray remembers clearly how Trinity Sober Homes started in the Twin Cities. In 2010, when he was about a year sober, he found himself “very broken financially, emotionally and, particularly, spiritually.” He showed up on the doorstep of the late Father Martin Fleming, a retired colonel and chaplain in the U.S. military who had once reported to General Colin Powell.
Father Fleming sat him down and said, “I’d like you to join me on a mission to roll out a series of authentically Catholic sober houses. What do you think?” Murray recalled.
Tim Murray stands outside of Trinity Sober Homes’ St. Michael Home in St. Paul. Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit
Murray offered to do some market research. Staff at every treatment center contacted told him that they were all “higher-power neutral,” and that every day they received requests for either a Catholic or Christian sober house. He repeatedly heard, “We could send you plenty of men.”
Thus started St. Paul-based Trinity Sober Homes, which today provides housing in several homes to 367 men. For most who live there, alcohol is their main problem, Murray told “Practicing Catholic” in an interview premiering at 9 p.m. June 11 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. “We provide safe, alcohol- and drug-free environments where men are held accountable to a series of rules,” he said, but fewer rules than some houses because Trinity specializes in men ages 40 and older.
Father Fleming was adamant about not “converting by the sword,” Murray said. “We meet men right where they’re at, just like Jesus did. Father taught us that the first thing that Jesus did in his public ministry was create community. And so, our uniqueness also comes in the creation of a spiritual, safe home — not a house, but a home, that you would be proud to live in.”
One thing Murray feels strongly about is being “unapologetically Catholic with a capital C.”
But he added, “You don’t have to be Catholic to live with us. You just have to believe that there is a higher power.”
To hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It also airs at 1 p.m. June 12 and 2 p.m. June 13 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Learn more about the Catholic sober homes at TrinitySoberHomes.org. Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Jeff Cavins, who describes a new course from the Catechetical Institute School of Discipleship, and Kate Soucheray, who discusses an upcoming multicultural sensitivity training day.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
soundcloud.com/PracticingCatholic
tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic (Spotify)
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