The Power and the Glory
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 18+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
In a part of Mexico long ago, priests were not allowed. One priest stayed, hiding and running. He was weak and had done wrong things. He still brought Mass and confession to the people, even though it cost him his life. This is a serious Catholic novel for adults and mature older teens. Its point is true and worth knowing: the sacraments are Christ's work, and they reach people even through a sinful priest. A parent should frame the priest's drinking and his child, which the book shows as sin and never as good. The Holy Office criticized it in 1953. Pope Paul VI later told Greene privately not to mind.
For parents
Not a read-aloud for children. Read it together with an older teen from about seventeen. Independent reading from eighteen, following the Catholic adult placement. A mature twelfth grader can read it with a parent. Know before you hand it over: the priest is a drinker, he has a daughter born of his sin, another priest has taken a wife out of fear, hostages are shot, and the priest dies by firing squad. Ask: is the whisky priest a good priest, a bad priest, or both? Why do his Masses and absolutions still count? Why does he go back for the dying man? What is the difference between him and the priest who married? Make sure a teen hears the plain teaching: the priest's sins are real sins, and grace working through him does not excuse them.