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Francisco Garrpe
Father Ferreira is a former Portuguese missionary priest who led the Christian movement for 20 years in Japan before the harsh persecution of Christians began in the country. Although once a revered member of the Catholic Church, Ferreira apostatizes before Inoue before the story begins, and learning the reason for his apostasy becomes one of the primary motivations of Rodrigues and Garrpe’s mission to Japan. Rodrigues does not meet Ferreira until the end of the story, but when he does, discovers that Ferreira is indeed an apostate and lives in Nagasaki as a Japanese man with a Japanese wife and family, and has been enlisted by Inoue to convince Rodrigues to apostatize. When Rodrigues sees him, Ferreira looks to him like a whipped, broken animal, and he observes that Ferreira goes to great lengths to justify his present work translating scientific texts by claiming that it serves the Japanese people. Ferreira explains to Rodrigues that after 20 years of missionary work, he finally realized that Christianity, as a Western religion, is simply incompatible with the Eastern culture of Japan. The Japanese people have no concept of transcendent beings and so cannot conceive of God or Jesus Christ in the way that Christianity defines them. Ferreira believes that the version of Christianity that did grow in Japan was so distorted as to not be Christianity at all. Although Rodrigues is not entirely convinced by Ferreira’s argument, Ferreira ultimately convinces the priest to apostatize by showing him that his own arrogant refusal to release his convictions brings suffering on the Japanese people—the same people Rodrigues is meant to help.
Christovao Ferreira / Sawano Chuan Quotes in Silence
The Silence quotes below are all either spoken by Christovao Ferreira / Sawano Chuan or refer to Christovao Ferreira / Sawano Chuan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
Their plan was to make their way into Japan in the throes of persecution in order to carry on an underground missionary apostolate and to atone for the apostasy of Ferreira which had so wounded the honor of the Church.
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Chapter 7
Quotes
“[Ferreira’s] translating books of astronomy and medicine; he’s helping the sick; he’s working for other people. Think of this too: as the old bonze [monk] keeps reminding Chuan, the path of mercy means simply that you abandon self. Nobody should worry about getting others into his religious sect.”
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Chapter 8
Quotes
“You make yourself more important than them. You are preoccupied with your own salvation. If you say that you will apostatize, those people will be taken out of the pit. This will be saved from suffering. And you refuse to do so. It’s because you dread to betray the Church. You dread to be the dregs of the Church, like me.”
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Christovao Ferreira / Sawano Chuan Quotes in Silence
The Silence quotes below are all either spoken by Christovao Ferreira / Sawano Chuan or refer to Christovao Ferreira / Sawano Chuan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
Their plan was to make their way into Japan in the throes of persecution in order to carry on an underground missionary apostolate and to atone for the apostasy of Ferreira which had so wounded the honor of the Church.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7
Quotes
“[Ferreira’s] translating books of astronomy and medicine; he’s helping the sick; he’s working for other people. Think of this too: as the old bonze [monk] keeps reminding Chuan, the path of mercy means simply that you abandon self. Nobody should worry about getting others into his religious sect.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
“You make yourself more important than them. You are preoccupied with your own salvation. If you say that you will apostatize, those people will be taken out of the pit. This will be saved from suffering. And you refuse to do so. It’s because you dread to betray the Church. You dread to be the dregs of the Church, like me.”
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