Monsignor Quixote

Published 1982

Greene rejected being called a “Catholic writer” and insisted that he was “a writer who is Catholic”. However, his books often provide support to the argument that “a writer who is Catholic” is a “Catholic writer”. In some of his books, Catholicism played a central role, such as in The Power and the Glory or The Heart of the Matter, in other books it has been a background theme. If you have read my reviews here, you will know that I often find the Catholic themes to be tiresome, especially when they are primary. Monsignor Quixote engages the most directly with Catholic theology of any of Greene’s books, yet I enjoyed it.

The novel is set in Spain around 1980. We start in the small La Manchan town of El Toboso where the priest is Father Quixote and the mayor a Communist named Sancho (his real name is Enrique, but he allows Father Quixote to call him Sancho). Father Quixote descends from the Don. His bishop once asked him how he could descend from a fictional character, but the good father shrugged off the question. That is only one of the aspects of Father Quixote that annoys his bishop. So, when Father Quixote helps an Italian prelate who had the pope’s ear and whose car broke down in rural Spain, and this good deed leads to an unexpected promotion to Monsignor, Quixote’s local bishop is furious. He wants to drive him from the diocese.

At the same time, Sancho is voted out of office. The two friends find themselves with time on their hands and several cases of wine and they decide to take a road trip around Spain in Rocinante, Quixote’s dilapidated car. The first stop is Madrid, so Quixote can buy his pechera and purple socks, the visual symbols of his ecclesiastic rank.

They then begin a tour of holy places in Spain, starting with the Valley of the Fallen, Franco’s tomb (at the time) and a monument to all those on his side who died in the Civil War. There is no more divisive “holy place” in Spain. As they leave there, they have their first run-in with the Guardia Civil.

A series of misunderstandings and intentional illegality lead to Quixote and Sancho being wanted by the Guardia and provide a reason for Quixote’s bishop to declare him insane. The situation took root when Quixote lets Sancho wear his Roman collar for a while, grows when the police find him reading Marx (Sancho’s books), flowers when Quixote goes to the cinema to watch the not-as-religious-as-he-thought A Maiden’s Prayer (someone sees him leaving the cinema with his pechera on), and bears fruit when he helps a bank robber escape. Should the two friends flee to Portugal? Quixote doesn’t have a passport. Perhaps they should hide with the Trappists in Osera…

The bishop and the Guardia combine their powers. When Quixote and Sancho are lying passed out from wine in the mountains north of León, the bishop finds his man and brings him back to El Toboso. The bishop sees that the Monsignor has demonstrated how ill he is, so perhaps it would be best if he spends some time in an institution. What will Sancho do when he wakes up and finds his friend gone?

*

The characters in the book are aware of how their names and actions resemble those of Cervantes’ characters. But the story is not a retelling of that novel, but an exploration of how quixotic belief functions in the modern world, with Catholicism and Communism serving as case studies. Quixote and Sancho engage with the world with a sense of playfulness, which provides them strength and is the source of their love for each other. Their beliefs make great demands on their credulity, but the world for them is a scene for engagement with and the enjoyment of other people. They have not locked themselves into the prisons of thought that the bishop or the Guardia Civil have.

Throughout their travels, Quixote and Sancho discuss the theology of Catholicism and Communism. In that way, this book has the most detailed discussion of theology of any of Greene’s novels. But the theological discussions are a like a radio program playing in the background. In the end, the correctness and absurdity, or not, of the characters’ beliefs do not matter.