As the book reaches its climax, Rodrigues feels the sand giving way beneath him:<\/span><\/p>\n From the deepest core of my being yet another voice made itself heard in a whisper. Supposing God does not exist. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n This was a frightening fancy. . . .What an absurd drama become the lives of [the martyrs] Mokichi and Ichizo, bound to the stake and washed by the waves. And the missionaries who spent three years crossing the sea to arrive at this country \u2013 what an illusion was theirs. Myself, too, wandering here over the desolate mountains \u2013 what an absurd situation!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Scorsese\u2019s Silence<\/em> is not a Christian film by a Catholic filmmaker, but a justification of faithlessness: apostasy becomes an act of Christian charity when it saves lives, just as martyrdom becomes almost satanic when it increases persecution. \u201cChrist would have apostatized for the sake of love,\u201d Ferreira tells Rodrigues, and, obviously, Scorsese agrees.<\/span><\/p>\n …………….<\/span><\/p>\n Related: John Paul Meenan, Martyrs Know that Apostasy Cannot be Justified<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Meenan quotes an amazing passage from Newman's Apologia<\/em> which is highly relevant to my thoughts in War, Torture, and the Aporetics of Moral Rigorism.<\/a> Here is the passage:<\/span><\/p>\n The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful [sic] untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n UPDATE (12\/28).<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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