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Article: The Catholic novel: fact or fiction?
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- November 8, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Is there such a thing as the Catholic novel?" Tricky question. My qualifications for addressing it boil down to two: I'm a practicing novelist--although that's not how I make my living (I'm a political and corporate speechwriter); and I'm a practicing Catholic, though the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith might require a retraction or qualification of certain opinions before it would license me, formally, to use that label.
When examined more closely, however, those two qualifications, thin to begin with, become even less substantial. I don't spend much time thinking about being a novelist, Catholic or otherwise. I did, in the beginning, when I wanted to ...