Reducing the Storm to a Whisper

Patrick J. Howell, a Jesuit priest, recounts his free fall into emotional and spiritual chaos. But he recovered from the breakdown with dignity and now uses his experience as an inspirational hope to those who are encountering mental illness. Revealing his innermost thoughts of fears, doubts, and illusions, Father Howell describes the storm that he endured and how the healing powers of faith and psychiatry helped reduce his raging turmoil to a whisper.

Patrick J. Howell, S.J., a native of North Dakota, graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, in 1961. He then entered the Jesuit priesthood. After ordination as a Catholic priest in 1972, Father Pat suffered a psychotic episode, or mental breakdown, in the summer of 1975. This book, written as an internal autobiography, covers the period of time before his ordination in 1971 to 1983 when he was in his third year as a principal of Gonzaga Preparatory High School in Spokane. Since 1986, he has been a member of the faculty at Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry, where he teaches spirituality and ecclesiology. Currently, he is dean of the department.