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 First edition cover | |
| Author | Brian Moore |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher |
|
Publication date | 1972 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Pages | 102 |
| ISBN | 0-224-00767-X |
| OCLC | 610037 |
| Preceded by | The Revolution Script (1971) |
| Followed by | The Great Victorian Collection (1975) |
Catholics is anovel byNorthern Irish-Canadian writerBrian Moore. It was first published in 1972,[1] and was republished in 2006 byLoyola Press with an introduction byRobert Ellsberg and a series of study questions.
Most of the action of the novel takes place on an islandmonastery off the southwest coast of Ireland. It is set in the future, near the end of the twentieth century after the Second Vatican Council. The story tells of a young priest sent by the authorities in Rome to fully implement Church reforms in an Irish monastery that still celebrates the Catholic liturgy according to older rites. The young priest, James Kinsella, is initially opposed by the Abbot of the monastery, who tries to preserve his and his monks' way of life. However, the Abbot eventually recognizes the need for—and inevitability of—change. The novel comes to a head when a confrontation between the Abbot and a senior monk, Matthew, nearly undermines the structure of the monastery. The Abbot is plagued by his own doubts in matters of faith. The novel ends on an ambiguous note as the Abbot prays for the first time in years, but in the face of the abandonment of their traditional way of life.
Critic Jo O'Donoghue describesCatholics as "in some ways a paradoxical novel". Like Moore, Kinsella is "a sceptic who respects the beliefs of others but also ... a traditionalist in his attitude to the aesthetic and mystery of belief ...[which] will all be lost under the new dispensation".Catholics, says O'Donoghue, "seems to envisage the ordinary Catholic, lay or clerical, merely exchanging a conservative hegemony for a liberal one. Both, ultimately, are equally tyrannical... In this novel, there is lacking that positive sense of the individual bearing witness to his faith... which emerges so strongly fromCold Heaven, fromBlack Robe and fromThe Colour of Blood".[1]
Moore also wrote the screenplay for the 1973television film version, which starsTrevor Howard,Martin Sheen, andCyril Cusack.
Moore adapted his novel for the stage. The play premiered inSeattle at theACT Theatre in May 1980.[2] TheUniversity of Washington has a copy of the playscript.[1] Gregory A. Falls directed[3] a cast that includedDavid Frederick White (as "Tomas O'Mallery"),Tony Amendola (as "Brother Kevin"), andJohn Aylward (as "Father Walter").
The book has drawn criticism withinCatholic circles for making the claim that it is possible forCatholic dogma to change, by portraying a fictional "Fourth Vatican Council" that has reversed theCatholic dogma of thereal presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This, being in conflict with the dogma ofinfallibility, has caused the book to be unofficially consideredheretical.
In addition to this, several phrases within the book (and the later film) have been claimed to be comparable to rhetoric typical of aSedevecantist sect, that is inschism with theCatholic Church.
