Recently ordained Dominican priest assigned to Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center

Friday, Oct. 24, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — Dominican Father Peter Hannah looks over the last 10 years of his life with a sense of disbelief. The past decade has seen him transform from a college student with dreams of playing professional golf and not much thought about religion, to an encounter with C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity that led him to convert to Catholicism, then to enter the Order of Preachers and become an ordained priest with sights on further study that will eventually license him to teach Scripture in Catholic seminaries.

“It boggles my mind,” said Fr. Peter, adding that “Being a priest is tremendous. I am thankful for everything that led me to the point of becoming Catholic, becoming Dominican, becoming a priest.”

Fr. Peter grew up Presbyterian in Monterey, Calif. Both of his parents stressed the importance of attending church regularly, but it was his father who insisted that they go every Sunday. 

“I’m very thankful for that, because it really did teach me – even though it was against my will much of the time – it taught me a certain piety and a certain respect for God’s house, and that giving worship to God is important; it’s part of living a balanced life,” Fr. Peter said.

Still, in high school he preferred to spend his Sundays on the golf course rather than in church. In college at the University of California, San Diego, he fell even farther from practicing religion, but the summer before his senior year his father recommended that he read C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.

After a game of golf, father and son visited a bookstore; Fr. Peter walked out with the book by Lewis and Jack Nicklaus’ autobiography.

Mere Christianity “was like water in the desert for me,” Fr. Peter said, because at that point in his life he saw himself in the light of his achievements, but after reading the book, he realized that “before any of my success or failure, before any identity that I have the world decides to give me, I am a child of God.”

After graduating with a degree in American history, Fr. Peter returned home and began doing youth ministry in the Presbyterian Church. He was dating a girl, but felt a call to be a minister of some sort, to “give my life to God in some special or radical way,” he said. 

Meanwhile, he continued to read Catholic authors, including Thomas Merton and G.K. Chesterton. His curiosity led him to enroll in Saint John’s College in Annapolis, Md., where he discussed the Great Books with people from a wide spectrum of religious backgrounds. 

Finding himself intellectually drawn to Catholicism but not yet a convert, he began to attend Mass, and one day, as he watched the priest elevate the host, he felt tears welling up because he realized if what Catholics believe were true, that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ, then “it would be so beautiful,” he said.

That experience led him to seek out a perpetual adoration chapel, where he prayed every day.

“I have no explanation for it, but every time I went to pray there I just felt like I’d been with God,” he said, and that experience, coupled with his intellectual pursuits, led him to true belief. “Faith requires an act of faith, and that requires grace, and that’s where prayer comes in,” he said.

He was confirmed in the faith in 2003 and, feeling a call to the priesthood, he investigated several religious orders before applying to the Dominicans. After eight years, including one year in residence in Anchorage, Alaska, he was ordained a priest on May 31. 

For the next year, or possibly two, he will serve as the parochial vicar at the Newman Center, then plans to pursue a licentiate in sacred scripture. Still, “I’m not in a rush to get out of here,” he said. “I love pastoral ministry.”