Part 2: Chapter 3 Summary

The church leaders in town decide that a Week of Prayer should be held as a means of resisting the plague. Father Paneloux, a popular Jesuit priest whose specialty is not religion but ancient inscriptions, has been selected to preach the closing sermon at a High Mass. Attendance is heavy at the services during the week although the townspeople are not noted to be very diligent church-goers. The plague, Paneloux preaches, is God's effort to bring them to repentance. He cites the plague that visited Egypt, forcing Pharaoh to release the people of God from bondage.

Part 2: Chapter 3 Analysis

Does God cause plagues (and wars such as the one that devastated France and the rest of Europe in the 1930s and 40s) because of the disobedience of the people? Oran's churches are a prominent part of the life of the people...