What a stunning portrait of ragged, dogged faith, made powerful and glorious in God's sovereign hands. I know this man – this whiskey priest – who finds it impossible to escape God's calling, even as he wonders that God wouldn't send a better messenger than himself. This is a man completely gripped by God, even as demons tear away at his flesh. And, at the height of this man's failure, God makes it clear that He may change the world with any vessel as He sees fit – vessels that sneak behind the enemy's defenses because they're so absurd. Greene also highlights the deficiencies of both secularism and the Catholic Church in his portrait, though he beautifully illustrates the ability of wayward Christian faith to find its way home again. All told, the book is a triumph of faith in the darkest of nights. ( )

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene is a 1940 novel that is set during a period that is known as the Cristero War (1926 – 1929) when the Mexican government was attempting to suppress the Catholic Church. This was a period of intense anti-Catholic persecution and in the state of Tabasco the police lieutenant is particularly vigilant as he hunts down priests and has them executed.

The main character is a nameless priest who wanders through Mexico as a fugitive, evading the authorities that have placed a 700 peso bounty on his head. The priest hears confessions, anoints the sick and celebrates Mass in the communities he visits. The police, in turn, threaten death to those who shelter the fugitive priest. What was interesting to me is how Greene gave us a priest that was far from perfect. He was rather unpleasant and had a tendency to whine, snivel and drink.

The Power and the Glory is a story of martyrdom, sin and salvation. The author uses vivid imagery to enhance his powerful and simple story. I am not a particularly spiritual person but this story is moving and, although short, leaves one with plenty to think about. ( )

One unsolvable problem that religions have always had is that their leaders are as human as the rest of us, which leads to all sorts of difficulties and sometimes horrors. The priest who is the subject of this novel has a lot of trouble accepting his humanness, his faults and needs and sins, and makes for quite the tortured hero.

The story is based on the Mexican state of Tabasco in the 1930s, where religion was outlawed and priests were forced to flee, marry and abandon the church, or go underground and risk capture and execution. Eight years after the anti-clerical laws were passed there is one underground priest left. He is called the 'whiskey priest' due to the drinking problem his nerves have led him into. He is the first to tell everyone he runs into that he is a bad priest, not only a drunk but also having fathered a child. He is passionately pursued by a police lieutenant driven by a fierce hatred of the church. The lieutenant blames the church for exploiting the poor and the priests for living well on the money they pitilessly extract from the peasantry.

The priest would in fact like to flee the state, but he feels compelled to be yoked to it by the need to save souls, which after all is far more important than any earthly pain or danger, though he cannot help being fearful of it. Yet he also condemns himself for his unwillingness to flee, calling it a sin of pride, and he legitimately wonders if he is doing any good. Then he also feels resentment towards the people he is staying to help, for if it wasn't for them he could be somewhere else, comfortable and safe. So he drinks as much brandy as possible.

If the priest is conflicted and full of self-doubt, the lieutenant is his opposite in this regard as well, for he feels none. He is certain in his vision of a bleak existence that ends in mortal death, and he would like us to get through it without suffering from religious superstition or poverty. If that necessitates killing some people, so be it.

Both men of course feel they are doing what is best for their fellow man, and they'll get the chance to discuss their clash of ideals by the end of the novel.

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This was my second read. I found this on my mothers bureau in high school. we all struggle with faith I guess. The trials of a whiskey priest are told by Greene in his most powerful and personal book. Greene debates his Catholicism through the thoughts and actions of wayward priest in 1930's depression era Mexico. Laced with metaphor when I think of literature I think of this type of prose. Loaded with thought and meaning the priest as sinner and inadvertent seeker of redemption is portrayed by Greene as a Catholic Everyman. Trying to do what he thinks is right but never attaining the standard. This is also a hard look at Mexico and is definitely not a cultural soft sell. Major complaint is the overuse of the word giggle. ( )

About a little-known (in the USA) period in Mexican history, the Cristero War (La Cristiada, in Spanish, I believe). In the late 1920s, the Mexican government sought to abolish the Catholic Church. The story tells of the last few months in the life of a so-called “whiskey priest,” a man torn between his calling and the way he has lived his life. A deserved classic. ( )