Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory: Faith and Politics

Introduction

Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory is considered by many to be his finest work. The novel addresses a variety of social, religious, and personal issues that lay close to the author's heart. The Mexican political situation and the Catholic faith are two of its most prominent themes. The following is a consideration of the historical context and inner truths from which Greene created this work.

Roman Catholicism and Greene's Conversion

Greene met the woman who would become his wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning, while working at the Nottingham Journal. While some suggest she was his reason for converting to Roman Catholicism, it is clear that his devotion to the faith later grew far deeper than the initial catalyst of a romantic relationship. This is evident in the way he portrays the protagonist of The Power and the Glory.

The priest's plight is both political and personal. He is unable to forgive himself for a brief affair in his past, while his immediate problem involves escaping the Mexican state where all religion has been outlawed. As the only clergyman remaining, he faces a painful conflict between caring for his parishioners and staying out of prison in order to do so. At the opening of the novel, he is waiting for a ship to carry him away. Greene portrays the priest's devotion to his calling through the fact that, time and again, he places the needs of others above his own — even at mortal risk. At the novel's end, he knowingly walks into a trap in order to help a soul in need. In this selflessness, Greene embodies the ideal of Catholic priesthood.

Yet the priest is deeply aware of his own flawed nature. This element provided grounds for criticism from the clergy regarding the negative image of the priesthood it seemed to project. It is not necessarily true, however, that Greene intended such a reading. The priest's very flaws are what connect him to readers and to those he ministers to. They also keep him humble throughout the novel — another aim of Catholic and broadly Christian faith. As a result, the priest reaches a level of spiritual perfection and influence that he himself is entirely unaware of.

One reason the priest remains blind to his own goodness is that he comes into personal contact chiefly with those he has wronged. Maria blames him for first seducing her and then abandoning her, while Brigida, his illegitimate daughter, resents growing up without a father. He is, however, unaware of those he touches deeply through both his life and his death. The most prominent examples are the boy and Mr. Tench. By portraying the main character as flawed rather than perfect, Greene makes his genuine goodness all the more striking. The priest never turns away from a person in need, even when doing so threatens his plans to escape — and even when he is aware of the trap being set for him.

Despite this, the priest goes to his execution in fear, because he cannot bring himself to repent for his relationship with Maria. The reason for this unrepentant attitude is itself noble: he cannot repent for something that produced a person he loves as deeply as Brigida. Love, too, is a Christian virtue, and the priest possesses it in abundance.

Though fully human, the priest makes a valiant effort to be as spiritual as possible. His acute awareness of his own flaws actually inspires him to greater acts of courage and faith than might otherwise have been achievable. For the reader, the focus becomes the priest's profound spirituality — achieved not in spite of, but perhaps also because of, his shortcomings. He is an example that inspires those he leaves behind to follow in his footsteps. Everything he strives for in the novel is rooted in religious fervor — the same fervor that can be seen in the actions of the clergy who helped bring about political independence in Mexico, and who serve as background inspiration for Greene's protagonist.

The Priest as a Flawed Hero

In Mexico, religion and politics were deeply intertwined. Clergymen fought alongside their countrymen to bring about revolutionary change, viewing this as part of their duty to those who depended on them. Greene's main character operates from the same paradigm. It is this commitment — rather than any personal failing — that makes him a hero and a martyr in the eyes of those whose lives he touches.

Col. Agustín Iturbide used his alliance with leading clergymen — including bishops and prominent priests — to unite his troops and persuade others to declare independence from Spain in 1820. According to Murray, religious leaders joined this struggle because they saw their people's right to practice religion as being threatened by Spain. For Greene's priest, the threat similarly came from political forces, and his attempts to flee were repeatedly hampered by the needs he witnessed around him.

September 27, 1821 brought independence from Spain to Mexico (Murray), but proved disastrous for the Church. Missionary, educational, and social work built up at great cost suffered under the upheaval that independence produced. Iturbide, though proclaimed both Emperor and Archbishop Fonte, ultimately departed for Spain and never returned, leaving the Mexican Church leaderless for years.

On the surface, the Church initially appeared secure — Catholicism was the only religion tolerated in Mexico. However, internal scandals multiplied as clergy quarreled among themselves, and many defected to other religious sects. Further instability came with the arrival of Masonic groups intent on removing the Church from Mexican life, and political parties seeking a complete separation of Church and state. After 1855, the government increasingly interfered with church affairs, including worship and religious freedom. This interference eventually became full-blown persecution. At its most extreme, it involved the government's confiscation of three centuries' worth of church-owned property and treasures. It is against this backdrop that Greene wrote his novel.

With this history in mind, the moral indiscretions of the novel's main character appear minor against the atrocities committed by the government. The priest — and the clergy in general — attempts only to do what he believes is right. It is this quality, more than any personal failing, that commands the attention of readers and of other characters in the novel.

Mexico's Church-State Conflict

Greene's priest can thus be understood as representing the suffering endured by the clergy during these tumultuous times. The mestizo who seeks to capture the priest for a reward, and who is depicted as consistently deceitful, can be seen as representative of government authorities such as Juárez and his associates — men whose repression of the Church was driven by a desire for power and wealth at the least possible cost.

Mexico's stormy history continued to escalate at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Catholics were oppressed to the point where practicing Catholicism, wearing ecclesiastical dress, or providing religious instruction in schools was entirely forbidden. The 1917 Constitution progressively curtailed all public manifestations of Catholic religion, actively suppressing the faith. Public worship and proclamation of Catholicism were banned. It was the beginning of this regime that Greene portrayed in his novel.

The tactful approach of Álvaro Obregón, president of Mexico from 1920 to 1924, meant that Catholic revolt was delayed. He enforced anti-Catholic measures rigorously in regions where Catholic sentiment was weak, and less strictly where it was stronger (Tuck). Priests like Greene's protagonist were therefore forced to move to areas where enforcement was less severe in order to escape persecution. Obregón's successor, Plutarco Elías Calles, introduced far harsher measures. Priests anywhere could be fined 500 pesos for wearing clerical dress and imprisoned for five years for making any critical statement against the government. This was a time of profound suffering for religious officials.

That suffering, however, fueled resistance. Catholic organizations were formed to oppose the government's campaign of destruction (Tuck). The most prominent were the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty (LNDLR), founded in 1924; the Mexican Association of Catholic Youth (ACJM), established in 1913; and the Popular Union (UP), a political party founded in 1925. Once again, religious organization provided officers to lead military resistance.

In contrast to this fighting spirit, Greene's priest waged a far more personal battle. Rather than armed resistance, he attempted to save himself by fleeing the harsh political measures, only to be thwarted repeatedly by people in need whom he could not turn away. In the end, this inability to refuse costs him his life. It is perhaps a mark of the humility born from an acute awareness of his own shortcomings that the priest never recognizes the impact of his compassion. Throughout the novel, he carries out the Catholic priestly vocation to the best of his ability, and it is because he dies for this ideal that he is recognized and celebrated as a martyr.

Greene's priest can also be seen as the opposite of the wealthy Catholics condemned for failing to support the Church during its rebellion against Calles. The rich, for example, undermined rebel efforts by paying the federal army for protection and by betraying fellow Catholics to the police when boycotts were attempted. This self-interest mirrors the behavior of the mestizo in Greene's novel.

Conclusion

When looking at the historical context of this and other works of Graham Greene, it is clear that he writes from a basis of personal experience and social conscience. In The Power and the Glory, two elements are dominant: the Catholic Church, and the social situation in Mexico at the time. Greene's faith deepened over the years (D'Souza), and this is evident in the novel. He is clearly concerned for the plight of Catholic priests — not only in Mexico, where conditions had become intolerable, but also in their personal lives. He gives readers a basis from which to understand and identify with, rather than condemn, the main character. The priest is condemned only by himself and by political authorities: he condemns himself for personal and moral shortcomings, while the government condemns him to death for his faith. This creates an arresting paradox. The priest believes he is unworthy of salvation because he feels his religious devotion is insufficient, while the government condemns him for the very faith he believes is lacking.