Anybody here 'taken the pledge'?

[DL82]

Apparently it used to be quite common for Catholics to ‘take the pledge’, i.e. to give up alcohol as a penance. In particular, the pioneer association was a major part of Scottish and Irish Catholicism (perhaps in proportion to our incredible tolerance for the booze!) pioneertotal.ie/pioneer/

Has anyone here taken the pledge? Is this devotion still around? I don’t usually drink. I don’t think I’ve touched alcohol for about 3 months, but find the one thing that makes me want a drink is when I tell myself ‘I’ll not drink during Lent’ or something similar, that kind of promise makes me want to go and get wasted the day after Easter:blush: . I don’t really know how I’d react to saying I’ll never drink again, or why I would make such a pledge, rather than just not drinking today.

 

[strngrnrth]

I gave it up for doctors’ (yes, that’s plural ) orders.

 

[Andruschak]

Apparently it used to be quite common for Catholics to ‘take the pledge’, i.e. to give up alcohol as a penance. In particular, the pioneer association was a major part of Scottish and Irish Catholicism (perhaps in proportion to our incredible tolerance for the booze!) pioneertotal.ie/pioneer/

Has anyone here taken the pledge? Is this devotion still around? I don’t usually drink. I don’t think I’ve touched alcohol for about 3 months, but find the one thing that makes me want a drink is when I tell myself ‘I’ll not drink during Lent’ or something similar, that kind of promise makes me want to go and get wasted the day after Easter:blush: . I don’t really know how I’d react to saying I’ll never drink again, or why I would make such a pledge, rather than just not drinking today.

I don’t know about the social drinkers, but there was a time when alcoholics, aka drunkerds, were thought to be suffering from lack of will power, and were sinners. Taking the pledge was part of being a “reformed” alcoholic.

Nowadays, the Catholic Church accepts and endorses the disease concept of alcoholism, and that includes the alcoholic Priests. We are no longer bad people, trying to be good. To be reformed. We are sick people trying to be well. To be recovered.

No longer are alcoholics to take a pledge to stop drinking. Nowadays we get the Sacrament Of The Annointing Of The Sick, as we suffer from a chronic disease.

 

[SwizzleStick]

… I don’t really know how I’d react to saying I’ll never drink again, or why I would make such a pledge, rather than just not drinking today.

Right now I think I could do this rather easily since for the past 10 years or so I might have a glass of wine during the Christmas holy days or a splash of Bailey’s in my coffee at some gathering and maybe a Margarita or Bloody Mary to celebrate our anniversary, but otherwise I don’t drink much alcohol. But, as sure as I’d try it, I’d probably immediately crave a Margarita or glass of wine or something.

 

[Brendan]

My mother and my brother are Pioneers

 

[NPC]

It is still commonplace at Confirmation ceremonies in Ireland for the bishop to encourage the children being confirmed (about 12 years of age) to take a pledge to abstain from alcohol consumption for a period of their choosing. Normally they would pledge to abstain until age 16 or 18 - although one wonders how many actually hold to their promise. Like many other countries, underage drinking is a huge problem here, and despite strict laws regarding the sale of alcohol to minors, it is still so easy for them to get their hands on it. At my confirmation I pledged not to drink alcohol until 21 and it was something that I took seriously, and now, three years after the pledge’s ‘expiry date’ I still do not drink alcohol. There is no special reason for this abstinence other than that I have never had any great desire to do so. I am not against people drinking alcohol - I just find that I don’t really need it to have a good time - the key, as with most things in life, is moderation and knowing when enough is enough…