Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2023 / 08:17 am
A slow but steady effort to bring an explicitly Catholic-focused rehabilitation facility to Arizona is coming together as a small group of activists works to build the program bit by bit.
The Kolbe Mission, based out of Phoenix, is working to realize “a Catholic home to serve those battling addictions,” one that its creators hope will “strengthen the mind, body, and soul through prayer, works, and fellowship.”
Drug addiction has wreaked havoc on U.S. society for decades, with the problem reaching severe crisis levels in recent years. Overdose deaths have also been on the rise. The National Safety Council said that just under 99,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, an all-time high.
CDC data indicate that more than 2,700 individuals in Arizona died of drug overdoses in that year. The Kolbe Mission, meanwhile, says that Phoenix is “the fifth-largest city in the United States” but that it “lack[s] a Catholic recovery center.”