Anne Rice & Catholicism

Anne Rice, famous for writing Interview with the Vampire and many other related works, is now rediscovering her Catholic faith. Her newest work is a part of her journey.

I wasn't surprised to find out that Rice has a Catholic background. After seeing the film rendition of her most famous vampire novel, I was struck by the conflict Louis experiences between his conscience and his nature. He must kill--it is what a vampire does, but his moral sensibilities tell him it is wrong to do so, and his struggle is a deep one. Louis's character was so well rendered in the film, that I have added the book to my very long list of novels to read*. The story of Louis, the vampire with a conscience, and Lestat, who is distinctly without one, is not so much a story that romanticizes vampires, but one that explores the darker side of human nature.

We Catholics are fairly unique among our brother and sister denominations, especially Evangelical Christians, in that we ourselves face the same kind of internal struggle between our nature and our wills on a daily basis, and our theology does not run away from it. While all Christians believe that we must have deep love for Christ, and faith in his power to save us, we Catholics do not believe that once we are "saved" we are guaranteed entrance to heaven. After our baptism, our sins can damage the close relationship we ought to have with our Savior. And in some situations, where the sin is especially grave, we can even choose to reject the grace he has offered us. The life of a Catholic is a constant cycle of sin and redemption. He saves us, we fall, we repent, and he picks us up again. It is evidence of the great love and mercy of our Lord that He does this over and over again for us, because as humans, we are weak, and unable to lead blameless lives unaided. He never gives up on us. The struggle is still a painful one, as each time we fall we are reminded of our humanity, and natural tendency toward sin. The impression this struggle leaves on one's consciousness is often derisively referred to in the secular world as "Catholic Guilt". What many do not realize is that guilt, like physical pain, can serve a useful purpose. It tells us something is wrong, and sends us to the Doctor in search of healing. To choose not to go, or to bury ourselves in our suffering can have disastrous results.

That Rice would be sensitive to this issue, even though she was far from her faith at the time when she wrote her novel, is interesting to me. Sometimes the impressions that our early experiences of the Church leave with us in childhood teach us more profound theological lessons than anyone would realize--the kinds of lessons that a novelist might (consciously or not) incorporate into her work. Sometimes it is these that ultimately bring us back to God, even after years of wandering.

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(*Unrelated parenthetical note: The quality of Interview with the Vampire as a film undoubtedly has something to do with the involvement of the novelist in its production. This was not done for Queen of the Damned, which lacked the depth of Interview and was, in this blogger's humble opinion, not a worthy sequel.)