This nearly could have been one of those long comments which you mentioned on another thread, where you write at length and then never post because it's not really about the book at all. Anyway I think I have now edited down to just being about Patrick's faith! Any child brought up in a religion will eventually start to question what they are being expected to believe. And they have to pick out what they actually think themselves from the web of family custom / habit / belief / tradition in which they have been brought up since before they could even walk and talk. (A certain R Dawkins might say been brainwashed into believing.) There are extra implications for Patrick - if he were to abandon belief and not be a Catholic he would be letting down all the generations of Catholic Merricks before him, and all those heroic martyrs. While he is having doubts, the Church goes through all these changes. This suggests to Patrick that the Church is not a divinely instituted authority, just a human institution. This means that all his heroic ancestors might have been wrong in what they believed, and everything they had to suffer was just a waste. Slight deviation here but bear with me. The Armed Forces drill their young cadets in the commands, rules and drills of obedience, so that when in battle, unable to think due to terror and shock, the externally imposed rules will override the brain's natural survival instinct to run like hell. Similarly the Church needs rituals, routines and commands, so that when the doubter starts to think 'hang on a minute, this is all rubbish' the full force of tradition kicks in and keeps the doubter going through the motions. Patrick is already wavering, and the Church changing its rules and traditions doesn't give him anything to cling onto. But Patrick doesn't want to let go of his faith, because that would mean letting go of his sense of being a Merrick, part of a long tradition of noble belief in the face of opposition. So he has to hang onto the wreckage of the Church's traditions because they are the only thing that makes sense of the whole thing for him. There is another point to be made, about language. If Patrick is having doubts he might prefer to have the Mass rushed through in an inaudible Latin mutter - that way he doesn't actually have to think about what is being said; he can lose himself in the 'bells and smells' aspect. But the Mass said clearly, in English means he has to actually pay some attention to the words and their meaning. And if he is having doubts, then he is already questioning that meaning. Finally, I think his obsession with the trad forms of the Mass is a form of distraction - the more he goes on about it, the less he has to examine the shaky foundations of his own belief.
Re: Religion
Any child brought up in a religion will eventually start to question what they are being expected to believe. And they have to pick out what they actually think themselves from the web of family custom / habit / belief / tradition in which they have been brought up since before they could even walk and talk. (A certain R Dawkins might say been brainwashed into believing.) There are extra implications for Patrick - if he were to abandon belief and not be a Catholic he would be letting down all the generations of Catholic Merricks before him, and all those heroic martyrs.
While he is having doubts, the Church goes through all these changes. This suggests to Patrick that the Church is not a divinely instituted authority, just a human institution. This means that all his heroic ancestors might have been wrong in what they believed, and everything they had to suffer was just a waste.
Slight deviation here but bear with me. The Armed Forces drill their young cadets in the commands, rules and drills of obedience, so that when in battle, unable to think due to terror and shock, the externally imposed rules will override the brain's natural survival instinct to run like hell. Similarly the Church needs rituals, routines and commands, so that when the doubter starts to think 'hang on a minute, this is all rubbish' the full force of tradition kicks in and keeps the doubter going through the motions. Patrick is already wavering, and the Church changing its rules and traditions doesn't give him anything to cling onto.
But Patrick doesn't want to let go of his faith, because that would mean letting go of his sense of being a Merrick, part of a long tradition of noble belief in the face of opposition. So he has to hang onto the wreckage of the Church's traditions because they are the only thing that makes sense of the whole thing for him.
There is another point to be made, about language. If Patrick is having doubts he might prefer to have the Mass rushed through in an inaudible Latin mutter - that way he doesn't actually have to think about what is being said; he can lose himself in the 'bells and smells' aspect. But the Mass said clearly, in English means he has to actually pay some attention to the words and their meaning. And if he is having doubts, then he is already questioning that meaning.
Finally, I think his obsession with the trad forms of the Mass is a form of distraction - the more he goes on about it, the less he has to examine the shaky foundations of his own belief.