Over a drink or two they commiserate being ejected from their respective cosy jobs and hit on the idea of taking a prolonged holiday and going touring in Quixote’s battered old Seat 600 which he jokingly refers to as ‘Rocinante’ (after the fictional Don Quixote’s donkey). Though named Enrique Zancas, Father Quixote jokingly calls him Sancho. His own Spanish bishop (who has never liked him much) is taking advantage of this surprise development to suggest the new monsignor Quixote is despatched to preach to a wider congregation (ie to get rid of him).Īround the same time the communist mayor of El Toboso is voted out of office and rendered unemployed. A few weeks later he is astonished to receive a letter declaring that the same bishop (back in Rome) has recommended Quixote be promoted to monsignor. One day he helps out an Italian bishop whose car has broken down on the main road to Madrid, giving him lunch and wine before sending him on his way. (p.51)įather Quixote is a good-natured Catholic priest in the sleepy town of El Toboso in the sleepy province of La Mancha in south-central Spain, jokily aware of his fictional predecessor, the great Don Quixote, who was supposed to have lived in the same area 400 years earlier. They both had a sense of growing comfort as the dark deepened and they teased each other. ‘Perhaps what we have in common is this manchegan wine, friend.’ ‘You said a few hours back that we must have something in common.’ ‘Isn’t friend going a little bit far between a Catholic priest and a Marxist?’ Friends are less apt to kill each other.’ ‘In recent history, Sancho, too many comrades have been killed by comrades. ‘Then why not call me comrade – I prefer it to Sancho.’
‘I have asked you not to call me monsignor.’
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