Indian
couple tells synod how inter-faith marriage is lived
The
14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the family, currently
taking place in the Vatican Oct. 4-25, heard from of an Indian couple on
Saturday how inter-faith marriage can be lived. Penelope and Ishwarlal
Bajaj from Mumbai, who have been married for over 38 years, are among 18
couples from around the world invited to the Synod as auditors. The
Indian couple was asked to share the testimony of their marriage and family
life at the 6th General Congregation of the synod, Saturday morning. Below are
the texts of their testimonies:
Testimony
of Penelope Bajaj
I
am married a little over 38 years. In Jan 2016 it will be 39 years complete.
Wow! I can’t believe it myself. I
owe it to God’s Grace only and He is the third person that holds us
together.
Though we are an inter-faith, inter-community couple, My husband a Hindu and I
Catholic but with our educational
and social backgrounds being very similar, we managed to have a great harmony in our
relationship along with the many trials and sufferings we have experienced.
The success of an Inter-faith marriage between two peoples has to be such, that
the catholic spouse should not be
asked to give up his or her faith. My husband understood this before taking the decision of marrying me.
In return I gave him the option to follow his own faith.
This religious freedom made the path of our marriage smooth and successful.
Then
came the birth of our two children who accompanied me to church and attended regular Sunday School,
but were not baptized.
It was my husband’s desire that both our children should be allowed the
freedom of choosing their own
religion and I accepted it with a very large lump in my throat. We have to thank the
many mentors who helped us in our family.
The
differences of religion were never a deterrent to us, for little magic words like
compromise, humility and
sorry helped us to lose our ego and live for the other.
Would we make the same choices today? Sure. No other way! Is there someone out
here who Knows - how a perfect marriage takes place?
We
are still learning and understanding
our marriage every day.
If
not for my husband’s tolerance and love of Christianity and my love and
understanding of
where he comes from, we would never been able to celebrate our life and
inter-community differences.
Thank
you Your Holiness Pope Francis and this distinguished Assembly for inspiring us
to share our personal memoirs of our life with You.
Testimony
of Ishwarlal Bajaj
I
was born in a Hindu family with highly educated parents with my mother being a
doctor of medicine and my father
an engineer.
My parents made the decision of sending me to a Protestant school where from an
early age. I assimilated Christian values and elements of
the faith which was novel but yet deep and inspiring.
I
met my wife Penelope, a devout and committed Catholic whose mother was a
principal of a school whose father
was a doctor of medicine too and an officer in the Indian Army. We
both decided to get married 38 years ago with not much of an opposition from
our families. I realized
there were differences in religion, and since my wife was keen in following the
Catholic faith, I was
happy to allow her - her religious freedom.
After
a while, I began attending the Holy Eucharist and was full of admiration at its
contents. I felt at ease
with the homily and the celebration being in a language - English I was familiar with. I then
began attending a theology course, entitled “Wellsprings”,
which my wife Penelope organized and
conducted for the laity of the Archdiocese of Mumbai. Through my attendance of the
programme for seven years I assimilated the teachings of Jesus Christ and got
into a deep understanding and love of Scripture. I questioned, I pondered and
finally decided to get baptized
on our silver wedding anniversary thirteen years ago.
My Baptism elevated our marriage to a higher spiritual level with a much better
understanding of our
relationship with one another. This motivated and encouraged my son and daughter who themselves
decided at the age of 28 and 32 to embrace the Catholic faith, thus completing the fabric of
a unified Catholic family.
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