2014-08-02 Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis marked the first-ever Feast of St. Peter Faber on Saturday, with a Mass to which several young Jesuit priests were invited. St. Peter Faber was one of the original company that formed around St Ignatius Loyola, and eventually became the Society of Jesus. He was the first Jesuit to receive ordination to the priesthood. St. Ignatius, himself, recognized in Fr. Peter the first great master and leader of the Jesuits' signature Spiritual Exercises.
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The head of Vatican Radio's German service, Fr. Bernd Hagenkord, SJ, spoke with one of the young Jesuits invited to Mass with Pope Francis. Fr. Franciscus Wawansitiadi SJ of the Philippines told Vatican Radio, "[Pope Francis] came like a brother, another brother Jesuit," to celebrate the Mass.
St. Peter Faber is also famed for his work to heal the divisions in the Church of his day, especially in Germany. Indeed, St. Peter Faber was a key instrument in the efforts to bring Germans back to the fullness of the faith following the Lutheran reformation. He was a theologian of considerable repute, though not one, whose preferred method of conversion was theoretical dispute. St. Peter Faber rather sought to call his hearers to the reform of their interior lives and to greater discipline of their affections.
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(From archive of Vatican Radio)