About Guest House

In almost everyone's life, there is someone we know who is experiencing the destructive effects of an active addiction. It could be an addiction to alcohol, prescription medications, or even food and gambling.

Fortunately, there is always help--from family and close personal friends, from readily available treatment centers like hospitals and other facilities that deal with addiction diseases for the general public.

But when a Catholic priest, deacon, brother or sister is suffering from an addiction, who can they turn to? Where can they go for help? Their special calling--their vocation--makes them unique and in need of a special place that respects and nurtures their religious calling.

That special place is Guest House.

Our simple philosophy: Save the individual! Save the vocation!

He could be a pastor in a parish near you. She could be a nurse in a neighborhood hospital, or a teacher in a Catholic grade school nearby. He could be a religious brother working in the soup kitchen or shelter downtown.

They all have something uniquely in common. They are Catholic priests and male and female religious who have alcoholism or other addiction and all of them have been cared for at Guest House. They are happy, healthy and enjoying renewed purpose, spirituality and ministry because of the donor-supported patient care programs of this place of hope and healing!

Opened in Michigan in 1956, Guest House is a nonprofit, charitable organization dedicated to the treatment of Catholic priests, deacons, brothers, seminarians and (since 1994) women religious with alcoholism, other chemical dependencies and related problems.

Guest House operates two licensed and CARF-accredited treatment centers, one at Rochester, Minnesota for priests and male religious and the other in Lake Orion, Michigan for women religious. CARF is the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Facilities

More than 7,000 priests and religious have been cared for! They have come from more than 165 dioceses, 120 religious communities and 48 countries worldwide. The vast majority have returned to their ministries renewed in health, purpose and spirituality.