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Guest House is a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to the treatment of Catholic priests, deacons, brothers, seminarians (and - since 1994 - women religious) who suffer from alcoholism, other chemical dependencies and other addictions involving food and gambling. Opened in 1956 in Lake Orion, Michigan, Guest House is the oldest, continuously operating treatment center of its kind anywhere. Guest House has 68 full-time and 61 part-time employees and an annual budget in excess of $7 million.〔"50th Annual Detroit Bishop's Dinner", Guest House, October 10, 2008.〕 Guest House operates two licensed and Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Facilities (CARF) accredited treatment centers. The one in Rochester, Minnesota is for priests and male religious and the other, in Lake Orion, Michigan, is for women religious. == History == Guest House was founded by Austin Ripley who was a nationally renowned mystery fiction writer and author of ''Minute Mysteries'', a popular newspaper column featuring solve-it-yourself crime cases, which was syndicated in more than 170 U.S. newspapers.〔John Russell, ("Nothing mysterious about author's mission" ), ''The Dunn County News'', December 27, 2009.〕 Until the early 1940s Ripley was battling his own crippling addiction to alcohol. As a recovering alcoholic, Ripley observed through priest acquaintances that Catholic priests were not succeeding in overcoming their own addictions. Ripley decided to devote himself to the creation of a treatment program that respected not only the religious calling of priests and other religious people, but also to preserve their dignity as human beings. First opened in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in 1951, Guest House was founded on Ripley's profound belief that his program should "save the individual; save the vocation," and in precisely that order. Guest House eventually moved to Lake Orion, Michigan. Ripley re-opened Guest House on Pentecost Sunday in 1956. The new location of Guest House would be the former home of newspaper magnate William Edmund Scripps in Lake Orion. Built in 1927 at a cost of over $2 million, the (Scripps mansion ) was isolated and had plenty of land which provided a peaceful environment for treatment. The purchase price of the mansion in 1956 was a bargain at only $185,000; however, Ripley did not have enough money to meet the purchase price. He was able to raise the money with the help of the Archdiocese of Detroit, through various fund-raising activities and with additional help of the then Archbishop of Detroit, Edward Cardinal Mooney. Mooney was deeply concerned about alcoholic priests in his own Archdiocese and had been favorably impressed when some had recovered through the Guest House process in Wisconsin.〔Barger, Mel: ''None Too Early, None Too Late'', page 14. Guest House, 2006.〕 Ripley obtained the necessary funds required to make the purchase with a loan. Ripley reasoned, correctly, that these clergy lacked the support of the Church hierarchy (who were, in the main at that time, punitive toward alcoholic priests), and that the average clergyman was better able to recover in the care of laymen, but among men of his own calling, education and lifestyle. As the need for services grew, Guest House found that there were long waiting periods for admission. In the early 1960s, a routine operation took Rip to the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which he felt was a great location for a second Guest House treatment center. In 1967, the ground was broken for the Rochester Treatment Center and it was opened in 1969. The Lake Orion Center, originally housed in the Scripps mansion, is now situated in a new $3.5 million facility on the same property. The new 16-bed center has the latest features for the handicapped and for those women religious who suffer from ambulatory problems.〔 Guest House began a collaborative working relationship with the National Catholic Council on Alcoholism and Related Drug Problems (NCCA), whose offices were located to Lake Orion at the time. In 2007, Guest House and NCCA merged to assist NCCA with its efforts to be a resource for the Catholic lay recovering population, and to further Guest House's efforts in this regard. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guest House」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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