a parallel to Greene’s own life.Greene converted to Catholicism in 1926. He said, “I had to find a religion… to measure my evil against.” (Liukkonen no page given) He didn’t understand God’s grace and he hated being called a “Catholic novelist”. To Greene the religion of Roman Catholicism went no deeper than the hymns he sung before he converted. The fact that he didn’t even want to have the name of his religion in his title shows the ungratefulness towards his faith. Greene saw Roman Catholicism, not as a “creed for the triumphant”, but as a “religion for the desperate”. In the novel when asked to renounce his faith, the “whisky”priest replies, “It’s impossible. There’s no way. I’m a priest. It’s out of my power.” (Greene- Power 40) The priest was talking about how he couldn’t quit being a priest and sneak out of the country because the militia would hunt him down. This shows that the priest considered quitting the priesthood and running away from his job. Greene’s own weakness in his faith can be compared to the priest’s thought of running away from his problems.Greene visited Tabasco, Mexico, in 1938 for only five weeks, during which time he wrote The Power and the Glory. This was his first and last trip to Mexico. Catholics in Mexico were in the process of getting over the persecution of the Mexican Government. Although persecution against the Catholic church was under control in most parts of Mexico, Greene just so happened to visit Tabasco, in which the fires of anti– catholicism were still smoldering. His impression of the country was awful and the fact that he was only there for five weeks greatly influenced and limited his ideas of the Mexican Government. Greene hated all he saw while he was in Mexico and left the thought that the US side of the border is much be...
