"When Father Jacques Loew began work in the docks at Marseilles in 1941 he could little imagine that his example would be followed by hundreds of other French Catholic priests and lead to a reappraisal of the priest's vocation. His audacious move - he had been sent by his fellow Dominican Father Lebret to study the condition of the working classes not to join it - spawned the worker priest movement whose pioneers sought to minister to France's secularized industrial working class. Priests took up work in such places as car factories to experience the everyday life of those they ministered....
But by the early 1950's the Vatican was becoming alarmed at the worker-priests' growing role in left- wing politics and what it saw as their abandonment of the traditional priestly way of life. In may 1951 Loew sent a long report defending the movement's work to Giovanni Montini the Vatican's assistant secretary of state and future Pope Paul VI. But Pope Pius XII was unrelenting and brought the experiment to an abrupt halt in 1954.
A disappointed Loew bowed to the Vatican's instruction and quit his job though he remained convinced that in spite of the problem the movement had provided an effective pastoral ministry. 'Of course a priest can belong to a trade union ' he maintained 'This does not mean selling out your priesthood.' He did not abandon his commitment. The following year he established the Saints Peter and Paul Mission to Workers which continued the mission among the working classes and devoted itself to training priest from among their number. The Dominican Order released Loew from its ranks to commit himself to this work.
Loew's ministry was not confined to France. After establishing the Saints Peter and Paul Mission he visited Africa before moving to Brazil in 1964 to work in the shanty towns of Sao Paulo where he intended to spend the rest of his life. However by 1969 he was back in Europe and established the School of Faith in the Swiss town of Fribourg. 'There was a need to educate the educators of the communities ' he explained.
Despite his sometimes turbulent life Loew remained committed to his mission as a priest at the ser ice of the community. 'A priest is neither yellow or red nor green nor violet ' he once. 'He is a man of God.'"