- Father Sebastião Rodrigues: [voice over] Lord, I fought against your silence.
- Voice of Jesus: [voice over] I suffered beside you. I was never silent.
- Father Sebastião Rodrigues: I know.
- [pause]
- Father Sebastião Rodrigues: But even if God had been silent my whole life, to this very day, everything I do, everything I've done... Speaks of Him.
- [pause]
- Father Sebastião Rodrigues: It was in the silence that I heard Your voice.
- Ferreira: I do because you are just like me. You see Jesus in Gethsemane and believe your trial is the same as His. Those five in the pit are suffering too, just like Jesus, but they don't have your pride. They would never compare themselves to Jesus. Do you have the right to make them suffer? I heard the cries of suffering in this same cell. And I acted.
- Ferreira: There's a saying in here: "Mountains and rivers can be moved but men's nature cannot be moved".
- Rodrigues: I worry, they value these poor signs of faith more than faith itself. But how can we deny them?
- Ferreira: We were taught to love those who scorned us.
- Father Sebastião Rodrigues: I feel nothing for them.
- Ferreira: Only Our Lord can judge your heart.
- [pause]
- Father Sebastião Rodrigues: You said, "Our Lord."
- [pause]
- Ferreira: I doubt it.
- Rodrigues: I feel so tempted. I feel so tempted to despair. I'm afraid. The weight of your silence is terrible. I pray, but I'm lost. Or am I just praying to nothing? Nothing. Because you are not there.
- Dieter Albrecht: It was in the year 1641, during the first of my voyages to Japan, that I, Dieter Albrecht, came upon the most extraordinary story in these pages. As a physician in a great Dutch trading company, I traveled widely. But none of the wonders I have recounted in this journal has been so commented on as the curious matter of the apostate priests. I came closer than any European chronicler to the enigma of this country. And to learning of the lives of the lost priests. Inoue, the Inquisitor, would raid homes and search for any objects with hidden Christian images. The two priest were required examine these things and verify their use. I even, on occasion, observed them myself. The Dutch were the only Europeans allowed to trade in Japan. All ships were searched to warrant they were not smuggling religious objects. Nothing bearing the images of the cross, a saint, or rosary could pass. Despite every attempt a few things inevitably were smuggled in. And then it was as distressing to the Japanese as if blood had been spilled. When Sawano Chuãn died, the other priest assumed his duties and performed them with distinction. By this time, I observed he had acquired considerable skill with the language. And seemed to be at peace with his situation. Okada San'emon lived in Edo for the remaining years of his life. Some 10 years later, I was allowed to visit Edo. The Japanese gossiped freely about Okada San'emon. The Inquisitor Inoue, demanded repeated vows of apostasy from him. And they say "The fallen priest supplied them all quickly and vigorously." The Inquisitor continued to insist on periodic examinations of all suspected Christians. Okada San'emon was not exempt from this. Inoue was determined to never let his example be forgotten. Perhaps most particularly by the priest himself. In the year 1667, a religious image was discovered inside an amulet belonging to a servant called Kichijiro. The servant said he had won it gambling, had never looked inside, and could never have gotten the amulet from Okada San'emon since he was always under guard. The servant Kichijiro was taken away. After that, Okada San'emon himself was carefully watched. During my last voyage in 1682, I asked about him, and the Japanese were eager to reply. The last priest never acknowledged the Christian God. Not by word or symbol. He never spoke of Him and never prayed. Not even when he died. The business of his faith was long ended. Three guards stood watch over the coffin until it could be taken away, just to be certain. Only his wife was briefly allowed to view the body, and place there a humble mamorigatana to ward off evil spirits. There was no indication that she wept. The body was treated in the Buddhist manner. And he was given a posthumous Buddihist name. The man who was once Rodrigues ended as they wanted. And as I first saw him, lost to God. But as to that, indeed, only God can answer.
- Voice of Jesus: Come ahead, now. It's alright. Step on me. I understand your pain. I was born into this world to share men's pain. I carried this cross for your pain. Your life is with me now. Step.
- Rodrigues: Father, how could Jesus love a wretch like this? There is evil all around in this place. I sense its strength, even its beauty. But there is none of that in this man. He is not worthy to be called evil.
- Rodrigues: I thought that martyrdom would be my salvation. Please, please, God, do not let it be my shame. The Lord is my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in Him will I put my trust. Of the Blood, all price exceeding, shed by our immortal King, destined for the world's redemption.
- Interpreter: The path of mercy. That means only that you abandon self. No one should interfere with another man's spirit. To help others is the way of the Buddha and your way, too. The two religions are the same in this. It is not necessary to win anyone over to one side or another when there is so much to share.
- Interpreter: But everyone knows a tree which flourishes in one kind of earth may decay and die in another.It is the same with the tree of Christianity.The leaves decay here.The buds die.
- [first lines]
- Ferreira: [narrating] 1633. Pax Christi. Praised be God. Although for us there is little peace in this land now. I never knew Japan when it was a country of light, but I have never known it to be as dark as it is now. All our progress has ended in new persecution, new repression, new suffering. They use ladles filled with holes so the drops would come out slowly, and the pain would be prolonged. Each small splash of the water was like a burning coal. The Governor of Nagasaki took four friars, and one of our own society to Unsen. There are hotsprings there. The Japanese call them "hells," partly I think, in mockery. And partly, I must tell you, in truth.
- [command is given and the captives are untied]
- Ferreira: The officials told our Padres to abandon God and the gospel of his love. But they not only refused to apostatize, they asked to be tortured so they could demonstrate the strength of their faith and the presence of God within them. Some remained on the mountain for 33 days. The story of their courage gives hope to those of us priests who remain here in secret. We will not abandon our hidden Christians who live in fear. We only grow stronger in his love.
- Inquisitor Inoue: Padre, you missionaries do not seem to know Japan.
- Rodrigues: And you, honourable Inquisitor, do not seem to known Christianity.
- Ferreira: Rodrigues, please listen. The Japanese only believe in their distortion of our gospel. So they did not believe at all. They never believed.
- Rodrigues: How can you say that? From the time of Saint Francis Xavier, through your own time, there were hundreds of thousands of converts here.
- Ferreira: Converts?
- Rodrigues: Converts, yes!
- Ferreira: Francis Xavier came here to teach the Japanese about the son of God. But first he had to ask how to refer to God. "Dainichi", he was told. And shall I show you their Dainichi?
- [He points to the sun in the sky]
- Ferreira: Behold... there is the SUN of God. God's only begotten sun. In the scriptures Jesus rose on the third day. In Japan... the sun of God rises daily.
- Inquisitor Inoue: I'd like you to think about the persistent love of an ugly woman and how a barren woman should never be a wife.
- Dutch Trader: But as to that, only God can answer.
- Rodrigues: These people are the most devoted of Gods creatures on Earth. Father Valignano, I confess I began to wonder - God sends us trials to test us and everything he does is good, and I prayed to undergo trials like his son - but why must their trials be so terrible, and why when I look in my own heart do the answers I give them seem so weak.
- Ferreira: The Japanese cannot think of an existence beyond the realm of nature. For them, nothing transcends the human.
- Rodrigues: No.
- Ferreira: They can't conceive of our idea of the Christian God.
- Rodrigues: No, you're wrong. You're wrong! They worship God. God, Our Lord. They praise the name of Deus!
- Ferreira: That's just another word for a god they never knew.
- Rodrigues: The black soil of Japan is filled with the wailing of so many Christians, the red blood of priests has flowed profusely, the walls of the church have fallen down.