Anne Rice has been a cryptocatholic for the past six years. With the release of her new novel, _Christ the King_, yesterday and the accompanying press that she’s doing for it she has effectively come out of the closet globally, though.
Mrs. Rice is best known for her Vampire Chronicles (Interview With A Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, …), the first of which was made into a film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
She left the Church at the age of 18. According to interviews she’s been giving she returned to the Church in 1999 after talks with her New Orleans parish priest, who told her that she didn’t have to agree with everything that the Church teaches in order to be a Catholic — that she could return to it and continue to work out her disagreements within the light of Truth.
I have high hopes for the book, which I picked up yesterday and which my wife is currently devouring. Mrs. Rice has said some fairly inspiring things in recent interviews about the necessity of using her God-given gifts in His service. She has claimed that a lot of research and attention to historical accuracy has gone into the book and denied basing any of it on gnostic gospels. She has acknowledged the possible pitfalls in writing a story from Christ’s perspective and says she believes she has avoided them.
The book has gotten good reviews from several priests thus far, who write that it will teach many about Christ and possibly lead some to Him.
While some secular reviewers are pitching this as a complete change of direction, I always felt that the Vampire Chronicles inhabited a Christian space. In them, Rice was searching in the darkness for the light, for redemption; now she’s brought her search into the light.
[I’m writing this entry from memory on my cellphone while stuck in traffic. If I have any of the details above incorrectly, please forgive me.]