Well, Anne Rice has decided to quit Christianity. I wish I was surprised but really, if you look at poor Mrs. Rice it was just a matter of time. In many ways she's led a very sad life. Her parents are dead, her mother was an alcoholic who died from it when she was 13. Her little daughter died, her sister and husband died and her son is gay. She must feel like dandelion fluff in the wind.
I've never read her greatest literary work, Interview With a Vampire because when I was 14 I walked into book store and picked up what I thought was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It was one Rice's "erotic" novels, actually it was grotesque beyond my ability to describe it. I read a couple of paragraphs and was so shocked that I left the store and never had the slightest desire to touch anything by her ever again.
When she had her big splashy reversion to Catholicism I thought it was great for her sake but I also thought the big time bloggers and Catholic intellectuals who lavishly praised her autobiography and her blasphemous Jesus books--- seven year old Jesus striking a bully dead and then apologetically raising him back to life, a young Jesus having a chaste but angst ridden romance with a girl from Cana????--- were nuttier than a Benedictine fruit cake. I am comforted by the fact that most notable priests and bishops did not join the bandwagon.
Where there's life there's hope and the story is not over for Mrs. Rice. I don't think Our Lady, and St. Therese, whose statues have decorated her homes, are done with her. However, there's a lesson here: Remember the parable of the sower. And if you want to read about the life of Our Lord get a copy of Archbishop Sheen' book or Father Giuseppe Ricciotti's scholarly work.
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