How Graham Greene Questioned His Way to God

Indeed, the book drew the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith), which in 1953 appointed two consultants, including a cardinal, to study The Power and the Glory. Both criticized the book’s depiction of sexual immorality, and Greene was summoned to Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal Bernard Griffin, who listed changes the Vatican thought should be made to the book. Greene declined. In a letter to Greene, his friend (and sometime frenemy) Evelyn Waugh suggested the following course of action: “They have taken 14 years to write their first letter. You should take 14 years to answer it.” Regardless of the inquisitorial opinions of the Holy Office, The Power and the Glory (inspired both by The Lawless Roads and by the life of Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., a Mexican martyr) survived to become a classic, despite an initial publishing run of 3,500 books. I first read this curious tale of an outlawed “whiskey priest” who stubbornly refuses to surrender to his political and religious enemies, even unto death, when I was a high school student (at first somewhat unwillingly; the title sounded suspiciously like a catechetical text), and have been hooked on Greene ever since.