Power and the Glory

I believe that the unnamed priest is a hero due to how he changed the lives of everyone that he had talked to; also, how he can deal with his past at the same time. Most of all of his actions did not directly help the people instantaneously, but down the road, they will see that all of the things he has done were for the better. While helping others, we learn more about him and how he is very ashamed of his life in the church.
The Whisky Priest was being hunted down by the many men of the police force, led by the lieutenant of the Mexican police force, for being catholic in a state where that religion was outlawed. The reason that it was outlawed was because the people thought that the religion prayed on the weak. The whisky priest knows that is a lie and does not renounce his faith and continue to act as a priest. This is where one of the main conflicts of the story arises. The lieutenant pins the picture of the whisky priest to a wall next to the picture of a man called the “Gringo”. The gringo is a bank robber and a murderer, but the lieutenant decides that he is less harmful to society than the priest is. He is also a threat to the lieutenant because if he is still a believer, then he may help others have faith that they can all rejoin Catholicism.
A Main point of the book which shows the whisky priest’s heroism is when the priest decides to not renounce his religion. Rather, he decides to run from the authorities because he believes that no one should be made to follow laws about which religion is right and which one is wrong. Another priest in the story is named Padre Jose. He is a priest that has renounced his religion and was forced to marry out of the Catholic Church because he did not want to perish at the hands of the lieutenant and his police force. He is allowed to stay in his town as a symbol of the weakness of the Catholic priests. He is mocked by the children in his neighborhood which makes Padre Jose fall into a sort of deep depression. This