The only novel I have read since ordination was Michael O’Brien’s Island of the World. It’s a gripping and grinding historical-fiction account about a man named Josip who grows up in Croatia in the 1940s. His family and community is then destroyed by Tito’s communism. Josip is sent to a gulag called Goli Otok in real life. There, he is tortured and loses his faith. After escaping, he wanders Italy and finally ends up a janitor in NYC. Does he regain his faith? You’ll have to read the book. It was so good I read it twice since ordination.>Since reading Island of the World, I have had a healthy fascination with Croatia. The book captures the fact that Croatia is the crossroads between a Catholicism that can be described as both Western and Eastern (although it is certainly more Roman Catholic than Byzantine Catholic.) Croatia is known as one of the most beautiful countries in Eastern Europe. Like many countries in Eastern Europe, it had a large percentage of its population killed by Marxists. >How does Catholicism survive in a place like this? Precisely because of her saints and martyrs. The fictional Josip was based on several real men.

Originally published in Padre Peregrino. Read original article