The Diocese of Davenport's
Vision 20/20 is About Sharing Faith
Louis Granato’s
Faith Story
As Shared at the 7:30 a.m. Mass on September 15
My name is Louis Granato and I was on the team that attended the Vision 2020 Convocation. Today we’re continuing the spirit of the convocation by sharing our faith stories. The idea behind sharing our stories is that evangelization starts with being able to understand our own personal experience of faith – where we’ve been and where we’re going.
I was raised in a strong Catholic family and I’m the oldest of seven children. I was baptized as a baby and I learned a lot about the teachings of the Church as a child. My family was very loving and very devoted to their faith.
As I grew up, I felt a calling to the priesthood. I vividly remember waking up one morning as an eight year old and having a strong desire to become a priest. I followed through by attending Ave Maria University in a pre-seminary program. I should say, however, that I followed through only to a certain extent because as I was studying philosophy and was on fire with my faith, I underwent a great test that I failed. My faith was tested by scientism and varying viewpoints that I encountered at the university (even though it was Catholic) and I turned away from belief in God and became an atheist. For nearly 10 years I was away from the Church. It was a big blow to my family and my Catholic friends, but they all stood by me and supported me as a person.
Unfortunately during that time I essentially became a pleasure seeker – a hedonist, wanting to avoid all pain. This is especially important to a person without belief in God because there is nothing to help understand suffering in life. There was some alcohol abuse, but the main thing that become a problem for me was cannabis. I was using cannabis multiple times a day and I couldn’t control it. This went on for about eight years. I had a feeling many times of wanting to stop, but I couldn’t. I was an addict.
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