How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph.)
Quote #1
"You don't remember the time when the Church was here. I was a bad Catholic, but it meant—well, music, lights, and a place where you could sit out of this heat—and for your mother, well, there was always something for her to do. If we had a theatre, anything at all instead, we shouldn't feel so—left." (1.4.45)
The Church was a source of culture, and for some, the only culture they had. The persecution of the faith meant the suppression of events and activities that entertained those who couldn't afford private luxuries. Now they feel deserted.
Quote #2
"Mother," the child said, "do you believe there is a God?"
The question scared Mrs Fellows. She rocked furiously up and down and said, "Of course."
"I mean the Virgin Birth—and everything."
"My dear, what a thing to ask. Who have you been talking to?
"Oh," she said. "I've been thinking, that's all." (1.4.58-62)
The witness of the priest does make a difference. Some parents continue to share their faith with their children, but not all do, and an occasional priest is the only instruction some people get. If they hear from a priest at all, it can be years in the waiting.
Quote #3
They walked up the street side by side, the fat one and the lean. It was Sunday and all the shops closed at noon—that was the only relic of the old time. No bells rang anywhere. (1.4.77)
Only churches had bells ringing to tell the time—a small but significant detail of how the Church shaped the "secular" culture. The oppression of the faith had unintended consequences.
Quote #4
"One day they'll forget there ever was a Church here." (1.4.86)
The lieutenant hopes for this, religiously. He desires this not only for others, but for himself. His public policy is deeply rooted in his personal hurts and dreams.
Quote #5
The Church taught that it was every man's first duty to save his own soul. The simple ideas of hell and heaven moved in his brain; life without books, without contact with educated men, had peeled away from his memory everything but the simplest outline of the mystery. (2.1.49)
In an effort to appeal to everyone, Catholicism has always instructed the faithful in both simple and complex terms. It teaches with simple prayers, creeds, stained glass images, and stories, but also with dense theological arguments, complicated theories of interpretation, and involved analysis of symbols and metaphors.
Quote #6
"Don't you understand, father? We don't want you any more."
"Oh yes," he said. "I understand. But it's not what you want—or I want…" (2.1.163-4)
In the Catholic faith, freedom means discerning God's will and living in obedience to it. Freedom is the ability to choose and do good free of hindrance, not the power to act however you will.
Quote #7
It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt. (2.1.331)
Notice the irony? First, very rarely is it easy to sacrifice one's life for anything. We don't call it heroic for nothing. Second, in Catholic theology, the Jesus Christ's sacrifice sets an example to follow. And the priest follows it, riding to certain death in order to help a thief and murderer.
Quote #8
One of the oddest things about the world these days was that there were no clocks—you could go a year without hearing one strike. They went with the churches, and you were left with the grey slow dawns and the precipitate nights as the only measurements of time. (2.1.352)
Life before wrist watches and smart phones, eh? Like the absence of bells, the absence of clocks shows just how much the Church had situated itself into everyday life. When it all but vanished, everyday life changed in large ways and small.
Quote #9
When she reached the tallest cross she unhooked the child and held the face against the wood and afterwards the loins; then she crossed herself, not as ordinary Catholics do, but in a curious and complicated pattern which included the nose and ears. Did she expect a miracle? and if she did, why should it not be granted her, the priest wondered? Faith, one was told, could move mountains, and here was faith—faith in the spittle that healed the blind man and the voice that raised the dead. […] When none came, it was as if God had missed an opportunity. (2.4.48)
There are at least two things to note in this quote. First is the way the woman makes the sign of the cross. Her Catholicism is culturally Native American (Indian in the text), and as is often the case, a universal and global sign of devotion in the Church takes on the peculiarities of a particular place. Second is the priest's questions about faith. He believes in miracles, but believes too that they don't come on command. Nevertheless, he can't understand why God wouldn't answer such faithful prayers. He has his doubts.
Quote #10
He drank the brandy down like damnation: men like the half-caste could be saved, salvation could strike like lightning at the evil heart, but the habit of piety excluded everything but the evening prayer and the Guild meeting and the feel of humble lips on your gloved hand. (3.1.86)
The priest feels that he's destined for hell, in part because he hasn't confessed his mortal sin and he loves the result of it (his daughter), in part because he believes his own piety shields him from salvation. He really doesn't think much of himself. Is he too harsh or does he really understand the state of his soul? And as Jewel famously crooned, "Who will save his soul?"