January 30, 2012

Vol. 206 No. 3Whole No. 4959 Download PDF

Editorials

Current Comment
Does God Listen?; Citizen Adelson; A Catholic Candidate?
Failure to Protect
The suffering and loss of children across the country demand an examination of national conscience.

Articles

Priests in Fiction
Doris Donnelly

This week, Doris Donnelly reviews Vestments, a new novel about a young priest struggling with his vocation. Here she offers a few classic novels featuring a priest protagonist.

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1940)

An unnamed whiskey priest is on the run from a Mexican state that has outlawed the church. All other priests have fled or been rounded up and shot. Stripped of his life of pampered privilege, and in a haze of alcohol and fear, the priest is unwittingly tugged to minister to needy peasants while eluding an intense lieutenant who is determined to rid his country from all seeds of corruption planted by the church. The paradox of strength in weakness has probably never been novelized better than here by Greene.

The Ethical Traveler
Tim Padgett
How to escape the tourist trap
Writing Home
Kerry Weber
Literary pilgrimages to the homes of Catholic authors
Two for the Road

Bookings

By Raymond A. Schroth

Books and Culture

Books
Master of Paradox
Jon M. Sweeney
A new biography of G. K. Chesterton, controversialist and Catholic convert
Books
Man of the Cloth
Doris Donnelly
A new novel relates the the life and loves of a contemporary priest.
Books
Two for the Road
On E. B. White and Henry David Thoreau
Books
At Home with Catholic Writers
Kerry Weber
A slideshow tour of popular literary pilgrimage sites
Film
Family Circles
Maurice Timothy Reidy
In "The Descendants," Alexander Payne has found source material that builds upon his oeuvre without replicating it.
Television
Faith Undercover
Kerry Weber
A Catholic CEO promotes good values and good business—with a little help from reality television

Columns and Departments

The Word
Beyond Suffering
Peter Feldmeier
The Word
Healing the Leper
Peter Feldmeier
Columns
Of Many Things
Patricia A. Kossmann
Columns
On the Hunt
Kyle T. Kramer
Letters
Letters

Signs of the Times

Anti-Poverty Programs Remain Likely Targets in 2012
Bishops Cheer High Court Decision
Human Rights Crisis In Pakistan
Climate Change Impact On Ethiopia
Spread the Wealth?
News Briefs

What You're Reading

  Priests in Fiction
Doris Donnelly
This week, Doris Donnelly reviews Vestments, a new novel about a young priest struggling with his vocation. Here she offers a few classic novels featuring a priest protagonist. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1940) An unnamed whiskey priest is on the run from a Mexican state that has outlawed the church. All other priests have fled or been rounded up and shot. Stripped of his life of pampered privilege, and in a haze of alcohol and fear, the priest is unwittingly tugged to minister to needy peasants while eluding an intense lieutenant who is determined to rid his country from all seeds of corruption planted by the church. The paradox of strength in weakness has probably never been novelized better than here by Greene.