Power and the Glory - An Un-Holy Priest There is uncertainty as to why Green
chose to have the priest in his novel, The Power and the Glory, be such an
appalling person. Normally, one thinks of a priest to be the holiest being among
all people on this earth. This belief is not proven to be true, however, in this
novel. In Christianity, you learn that priesthood is one of the closest things
to purity and Godliness that exists on this earth. They don’t engage in sexual
relationships, and they certainly don’t do anything that is against the law. In
The Power and the Glory, however, the priest, lovingly known as the “whisky
priest”, does the opposite of these regulations. Firstly, he is an alcoholic. In
this time, alcohol was an illegal substance, yet the priest still takes part in
drinking it. It seems that almost every situation in which the priest is
involved throughout the book, he drinks.
In the very beginning, when he first meets Mr. Tench and gets alcohol, all
the way through the end when he is arrested and killed for being caught with
Brandy. The next subject matter that gives me confusion about the priest is his
relationship with Maria. He had sex with her, and she had his child. This is
something that among priests is absolutely unheard of, and it bewilders me that
the whiskey priest would be involved in such things. The reason the priest was
being searched for is because religion was outlawed. Anyone who was found
practicing religion was to be put to death. One would think that all the priests
would declare their belief in God, and would be willing to die for him. The
whisky priest ran from confrontation about his being a priest, and instead, died
for alcohol. Throughout the book, I tried to think of the priest as a good man,
because most are. The contradiction of his behavior and his beliefs, however,
seems like Greene was trying to make his readers think otherwise. An exact
reason is not known as to why Greene chose to make this character the way he is,
one can only guess. My presumption about the alcoholism is that the priest was
so afraid of being caught because of his religion, that alcohol was a way out
for him. It made him feel at ease and carefree. Although some might think that
the priest should know better than to get involved with alcohol, perhaps he was
so overwhelmed with emotion, that drinking seemed to be the only thing he could
do to keep from going insane. As far as the priests’ relationship with Maria
goes, I think that may have just been a one time fluke. He is a man, and men
have hormones that sometimes take control of them and make them unable to think
rationally. All of the shocking things that the whiskey priest did caused much
confusion to me and most likely to the other readers as well. The most coherent
explanation I can come up with to these questions about the priests behavior, is
that we are all human. When God sent us to this planet, he knew that we were not
faultless. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone sins, even priests. After all,
they are human too.
