The Very Model of a Modern Catholic Comedy.

The article explores the challenges and possibilities of writing a modern Catholic comic novel amid contemporary cultural and philosophical conditions. It argues that comedy, defined as a blend of truth and pain, can engage deeply with human experience without descending into tragedy, offering a resolution that reflects moral transformation and fulfillment. The modern self, characterized as a "buffered self" detached from transcendent values, presents a unique comic protagonist whose fantasy reality can be satirized to reveal its paradoxical bondage. The Catholic comic novelist's task is to use metaphysical satire to expose this condition and then open the protagonist—and the audience—to the transcendent moral order, portraying divine love as the ultimate fulfillment of human longing.