Andrew Scheibe
Junior Faith
11/18/08

The Mission
Altamirano from The Mission was a complex character whose actions and motives reveal the complexity of his situation and his character. Altamirano is the papal delegate who has to decide whether or not to give current Spanish lands to Portugal, or to keep it under the Church’s protection. The lands which are home to the Guanine, are under protection from slavery while under Spanish control, but not while under the Portuguese. The Portuguese and the Spanish both want the lands to go to the Portuguese so that they can benefit from slavery. The Jesuits there want the lands to remain under Spanish control or under the Church so the Guanine can remain free from slavery. Altamirano is thrown into this mess with the task of deciding what to do with these lands. If Altamirano sides with the Spanish and Portuguese, he abandons the Guanine to slavery and dismisses everything the Jesuits have done there. If Altamirano sides with the Jesuits, he upsets both the Spanish and the Portuguese and gets the pope into trouble politically.

Altamirano shows what faith is through his faith in his conscience. Altamirano believes that the issue is over the existence of the Jesuits and not the will of God. Although he does not advocate slavery, he must side with the Spanish and the Portuguese as it will mean a better chance of keeping the Jesuits alive. He decides to give the lands to the Portuguese, abandon the work of the Jesuits there, and give the Guanine over to slavery, all to try and help out the Jesuit order as a whole. Altamirano’s experience shows that faith: requires a free human response, is a risk, reasonable, seeks understanding, and is a virtue. Faith is not doing what is necessarily easy, but what is right. Faith is very complex and the actions based on faith can have both bad and good consequences. Altamirano’s faith in his conscience helped me to learn the complexity of faith and its outcomes.