My Road to inter-religious Dialogue

Some years ago I contributed an essay for a book called Wrestling and Resting – exploring stories of spirituality. In it I sketched the trajectory of my spiritual life as it developed from my boyhood till today. Reflecting on my life’s journey I can now see how mysterious God’s ways are. In my teens I joined the Jesuits and volunteered to go to India as a missionary to spend my whole life there –never to come back to Malta, my country of origin, not for any reason.  My lofty ideal was, believe it or not, to convert all the’ pagans’ I could, who would otherwise be lost. Yes, I deeply desired that I would  have the privilege of dying as a martyr for Christ like many Jesuits before me. I sincerely wished this.

 

In my enthusiasm I plunged into the world that is India. I spent five years studying modern and classical Hindi as well as Sanskrit in which I graduated. This enabled me to study the Hindu scriptures and literature – the Ramayana, the Bhagavadgita, the Indian devotional and mystical literature of Mirabai,  Surdas and Kabir. When I look back on all this today, I see clearly how God and I were at cross purposes: I to conquer ‘souls’ for Christ in India then, God to prepare me for inter-religious dialogue in the UK much later. The irony of all this is that I was sent to an Indian University to do these studies by a mistake of my superior. He mistook me for a promising young India Jesuit. When the mistake was found out, I was told to carry on regardless of what no doubt, was thought to be a fool’s errand.

 

 Living among  Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and Buddhists as well as many aboriginals among whom I lived and whose language I speak and write brought me face to face with some people who lived by the highest of Christian ethical standards. I experienced God in the Hindu, the Muslim and the Sikh.  I admired  the prayer life, the generous almsgiving and the truthfulness of many. I was also fortunate in having Jesuit philosophy and theology professors who had a broad vision of God’s plan for salvation. Two of them were experts at the Second Vatican Council and their thoughts found their way in the Council document Nostra Aetate- the basic document on Interreligious Dialogue. Tony de Mello, a fellow Jesuit, with his inimitable charm and freshness taught me the art of tasting and feeling in my heart the inner meaning of the stories he tells, as Jesus did, to the point that they transformed me. I began to sense authentic prayer and love in my Hindu neighbours which enriched me as I interacted with them. This was  inter-religious dialogue though we did not then know the name.

 

My transfer to Malta, a tiny all-Catholic island, as head of the Jesuits was a joyful homecoming but it deprived me of the joy of meeting God in so many people of other faiths. I encouraged several of my brother Jesuits to widen their horizons and some went for stints in multifaith societies overseas. For a time I had to be content with teaching world religions at the University and of writing a book about Yoga and Zen in Maltese. When my term of office was over I applied for a visa to go back to India where many of my books and clothes were still packed away in a ramshackle godown. My application was turned down. After having lived and worked in India for twenty five years, I was told that, as there were then Indian Jesuits, I was no longer needed. I cried out to God to show me His will. I could not understand.

 

It was at this time that I started coming to the UK on supply as a priest. In circumstances that go beyond the scope of this article, I asked Pope John Paul II to release me from my religious vows and obligations of the priesthood to marry the young woman I fell in love with who is now my wife and mother of our daughter. It was at this time that I started attending the Westminster Interfaith activities run by Brother Daniel, Michael Barnes and Elizabeth West. I now began to get a glimpse of the way God had prepared for me. I was invited to join the team, started organising interfaith courses and events, in North London, in Finchley in Cockfosters, and Golders Green. I helped organise the annual pilgrimage. With my Indian background I felt  able and confident to engage with people of other religions.

 

For me the grace that confirmed and sealed my calling to be immersed in the interreligious world was a letter from the late Cardinal Basil Hume telling me that he would be delighted if I could be the director of Westminster Interfaith. Twenty four hours per day were not enough for me to meet people of all faiths and engage in dialogue at different levels and in its multifaceted aspects : mixed- faith marriages, inter-faith projects, visits to places of worship, school assemblies and much more. On the national level I was privileged to serve on the Committee for Other Faiths of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. I lectured in the London seminary teaching future priests. I helped out in the formation programmes for permanent deacons from the six dioceses in the south of the UK. For many in the Westminster Diocese I was one of the resource persons on interreligious dialogue.

 

When I volunteered to go to India as a Jesuit missionary my plan was to convert people not to dialogue. But as the saying goes: man proposes and God disposes. I myself underwent a conversion that enabled me to experience God in the other. Religious obedience took me away from India back to Malta, and from Malta to the UK. Moving on in my life’s journey from the religious priesthood to the lay state within the church I was to be given a new mission as a lay person by the highest Church authority in this country.

 

The title I gave to the article I wrote in the book Wrestling and Resting was , like Joseph’s in the Bible,“ A Coat of Many Colours”. Perhaps I could describe my journey into the inter religious world as a “double - breasted jacket”.