This letter was addressed by Simone Weil to a French priest living in New York when she was staying there in the autumn of 1942, the day before she left to join the Free French Movement in London. It contains thirty-five expressions of opinion on matters concerning Catholic faith, dogma and institutions, which, she says have occupied her inmost thoughts for many years, and she asks whether each of these opinions is, or is not compatible with her being received into the Church. No reply, so far as is known, was ever made. When she wrote the letter Weil was considered by those who knew her to be 'like a soul in torment, an unhappy soul, an utterly sincere being, whose thinking had all the signs of a deep inner conflict'. Her state of mind becomes clear in the vehemence and immediacy of this work. The concerns she raises are no less fundamental for being highly controversial. Letter to a Priest is required reading for all who have questions about faith and belief.