Dominicans

The Dominicans are a Catholic religious order whose church becomes one stop in Frank’s repeated search for confession in Limerick. The episode links the order’s religious setting to the pressures of sin, absolution, and fear: its church briefly seems to offer Frank an easier encounter with the sacrament, but that sense of safety proves fragile.

The Order in Frank’s Search for Confession

Frank moves among churches and religious orders looking for a priest who will hear his confession. The Dominicans are part of this circuit, alongside the Redemptorists, Jesuits, Augustinians, and Franciscans. His visits are not a general account of the order’s structure or work; the narrative presents the Dominicans specifically through the church’s role in his personal religious crisis.

The search reflects the conflict between the Church’s assurance of mercy and Frank’s persistent conviction that his repeated sexual sin makes him unacceptable. He wants absolution, yet confessional encounters have left him feeling condemned for failing to show proper repentance. The Dominican church appears promising because its elderly priest is hard of hearing, offering Frank the possibility of confession without being fully heard.

The Elderly Priest and a Precarious Refuge

Frank goes to the Dominican church every few weeks to confess to the elderly priest. The priest sometimes falls asleep during the confession, and Frank does not wake him. Frank consequently receives Communion the next day without penance or absolution, reasoning that the priest’s sleep is not his fault and that the act of going to confession may itself leave him in a state of grace.

This arrangement is both comic in its practical logic and revealing of Frank’s desperation. The old priest’s deafness and sleep seem to soften the demands of the confessional, but they also leave Frank uncertain about whether he has actually received absolution. The account depicts a makeshift refuge rather than a resolution: the sacrament’s procedures remain important to Frank even as he tries to evade the exposure and judgment he fears.

The Confessional Door Opens

The fragile accommodation ends when the confessional panel slides back and a different priest appears: a young man with a conspicuously large ear. Frank immediately fears that this priest will hear everything. The scene turns on the contrast between the elderly priest, whose limitations had made confession seem manageable, and the newcomer, whose presence restores the possibility of being fully heard.

Later, Frank’s search expands across Limerick’s churches. He cycles from the Redemptorists to the Jesuits, Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans, and even kneels near confessionals, but when his turn comes he cannot proceed and flees. As time passes after Theresa Carmody’s death, he stops entering churches for confession and hopes instead for a more understanding priest in America. The Dominican church remains part of this wider pattern: religious institutions promise relief, while Frank’s fear repeatedly prevents him from accepting it.