Fr Martin Ganeri O.P.

I have always lived one faith while being open to and enriched by another.  On my father’s side the family are Hindu, on my mother’s side Christian.  Like many Hindus, my father located his tradition more in terms of culture and family values than in religious practice.  The main influence on me religiously as a child was in fact my grandfather who used to take us to church every Sunday.  As a result it was within the Christian tradition that I grew up.

My grandfather was a member of the Church of England. As I came to the end of my time at school, however, I started thinking and reading more about the Christian faith and began to be attracted to the Catholic vision of Christianity.  I was especially drawn to the Catholic emphasis on the sacraments as the physical media that a loving God uses to communicate to us bodily creatures the mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. As one modern theologian has put it: The sacraments are visible historical gestures of Christ in our modern world.  They are the outward bodily tools of the life of unity with God, just as kisses or embraces are the outward bodily tools of love between human being (Timothy McDermot,Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation).

So I became a Catholic.  While at university I also got to know the Dominicans and came to be attracted to their way of life with its mixture of contemplative and active life, with its special emphasis on study and preaching.  I was particularly impressed by the broad vision of what the Dominican commitment to its motto, Veritas, truth, seemed to mean, with some of the brethren studying and teaching anthropology or even Italian literature, along with the more expected disciplines of theology.  Truth in all its forms was sought and valued.  The truth in all its forms was contemplated and handed over to others.

So my further move was to become a member of the Dominican Order a few years after I left university.  As it has happened this has been an occasion for me to explore and live out not only my Christian faith in general, but also to explore and live out the openness that has always been there to my father’s tradition and to other religions in general.  I have been fortunate to be involved in the Church’s work of interreligious dialogue, as well as to teach on Christian encounter with Hinduism in one of the leading Catholic colleges.  In these endeavours I’ve always been deeply attracted to Catholic vision of the universal presence and activity of the Holy Spirit.  As Pope John Paul put it: The Spirit, who ‘blows where he wills’, and ‘who was already at work in the world before Christ was glorified (AG 4)’ and who‘has filled the world...holds all things together (and) knows what is said (Ws 1:7),’ leads us to broaden our vision in order to ponder his activity in every time and place (Redemptoris Missio 29).

I suppose I’d sum up my faith story as being one of attraction, rather than any dramatic events, an attraction to the irresistible beauty of Catholic Christianity, its spirituality, traditions and teaching; an attraction to the beauty and truth of other religions, especially the rich variety of traditions found in Hinduism.