I cried three times when watching Silence at the Covent Garden Odeon. Which is surprising because it’s the least sentimental, most masculine movie you could imagine. It’s a model for the Church. This is how we should be.
It begins with Jesuit Fathers Rodrigues and Garppe landing in 17th-century Japan like our boys on D-Day. They’ve come to find Fr Cristóvão Ferreira, a priest who is rumoured to have apostasised in the face of the ruling elite’s war on Christianity. For decades the Japanese peasants have been practising their faith in secret; Rodrigues and Garppe are exhilarated by the passion they find. But they also discover that leadership in a time of oppression carries awesome responsibilities. The Japanese inquisitors kidnap the Christian peasants and force them to recant and betray the priests. Many refuse and are martyred. But Rodrigues is eventually caught and is posed an awful choice: renounce his faith or the killing will continue.
