The Senator of the Priest.THE SENATOR AND THE PRIEST By Andrew M. Greeley (Forge, 2006) Though the genre of Christian fiction has been booming in recent years, there's really no comparable "Catholic fiction" category Catholic novelists may infuse in·fuse v. 1. To steep or soak without boiling in order to extract soluble elements or active principles. 2. To introduce a solution into the body through a vein for therapeutic purposes. their stories with a Catholic sensibility, but they rarely write explicitly about faith or the church. Then there's Andrew Greeley The Reverend Dr Andrew M. Greeley (born February 5, 1928 in Oak Park, Illinois to Andrew and Grace Greeley) is an Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and best selling author. He has given numerous interviews on both radio and television. . God, the church, and a priest are always major characters in the priest-sociologist's novels. In his latest, The Senator and the Priest, Tommy Moran Tommy Moran was a leading member of the British Union of Fascists and a close associate of Oswald Mosley. Initially a miner, Moran later became a qualified engineer and also served in the Royal Navy, where he became a champion boxer in the Light heavyweight division. , an amiable Catholic from Chicago, leaves his law practice for a career in the U.S. Senate, where he faces all the perils of today's contemporary political scene, including assassination Assassination See also Murder. assassins Fanatical Moslem sect that smoked hashish and murdered Crusaders (11th—12th centuries). [Islamic Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 52] Brutus conspirator and assassin of Julius Caesar. [Br. attempts, sexual temptations from a beautiful staffer, and attacks by the religious right--in this case from his own priest brother. Although uber-realistic characters aren't expected in this genre, Greeley's protagonists seem idealized i·de·al·ize v. i·de·al·ized, i·de·al·iz·ing, i·de·al·iz·es v.tr. 1. To regard as ideal. 2. To make or envision as ideal. v.intr. 1. . Moran's wife is the perfect woman: smart, sexy, modern but also 100 percent supportive of her husband. Moran may get frustrated frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: during the campaign trail, but he always says and does the perfect thing. Their perfect children, too, don't sound like any teenagers I know. Likewise, the sex scenes, for which Greeley is often scorned for including in his novels, are pretty idealized and actually rather tame. That's not to say that Greeley doesn't have his pulse on topics of concern to contemporary Catholics. He does, and his book sales show it. Not only do his novels deal with the everyday life of (mostly Chicago) Catholics, but recent novels have dealt with topics in the news, from the sex abuse crisis to today's political polarity (1) The direction of charged particles, which may determine the binary status of a bit. (2) In micrographics, the change in the light to dark relationship of an image when copies are made. . I wish I could say Moran's "Christian" and Catholic attackers were parodies, but their scathing words unfortunately could have been taken from the headlines of recent campaigns. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks the fictitious junior senator from Illinois bears a resemblance to a certain real-life presidential candidate from the same state. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion