ALCOHOL VS. PRIEST´S POSITION

Through the previous pages, I could identify two extraordinary issues which made me consider the protagonist in a superior way. As the story keeps on, we can conclude that the Stranger from the beginning is the priest, who everyone of the elite is looking for.
Many priests have abandoned religion to be accepted by government, but this main character doesn’t want to leave his religious role. We can assure this individual can be a stranger to society, because of being outside the common perspectives, but at the same time we can definitely say he does care about defending and saving his thoughts or beliefs, not caring being persecuted by all political hunters. He has two options: continue his life as a priest or give up to be part of acceptance; “Renounce your faith”, she explained... He said,
“ It´s impossible. There´s no way. I´m a priest. It´s out of my power”(P.40). That´s it! He will continue avoiding Mexican’s stiffness.
As this passage makes us clearly realize the priest is sure about continuing his escape, we are now also able to see his necessities to achieve the permanence in his position. As we could see in the first chapter, this protagonist has always being aware about having alcohol by his side. At first we could think this was just an insignificant act, although it has been easily to perceive this character continues being aware of his brandy. “She could hear him sucking desperately at the bottle. She said, “I think I could find my father’s brandy”(P.41). Even the other characters, such as Mr.Tench and the girl are aware of the priest’s constant attention towards the existence of alcohol.
By the moment we can conclude the priest is an alcoholic, so... will the priest´s position change if no alcohol is by his side?