Cristóbal Fones, SJ

Jesuit Father Cristóbal Fones “seeks to announce the joy and hope of the Reign of God through music.” A gifted composer and native of Chile, he was ordained in 2007 after completing graduate studies in the United States. He released his first collection for OCP, Tejido a Tierra, in summer 2008.

Cristóbal was born in Santiago, Chile, and was active in music and the church since early childhood. He completed undergraduate studies at the Catholic University of Chile. Before entering the Jesuit novitiate, he sang at popular music festivals and weddings. Music continued to play an important role during his years of formation with the Jesuits.

Encouraged by his superiors, he recorded a number of songs for pastoral use in 1996. The result was his first collection, Te Contemplo en el Mundo, a “simple production” that was surprisingly popular. Recognizing the need to make Catholic music more accessible in Chile, he recorded a second album in 1997, En Él Solo la Esperanza, which was even more widely distributed.

In 1999, Cristóbal produced his third CD, Padre, Te Canto. That same year he began a pastoral experience with the Mapuche people in southern Chile. The fruit of this missionary enterprise was the first Mass setting in the indigenous language of Chile, Misa ülkantun, published in 2001.

Returning to the capital in 2002 to continue his theological studies, he wrote a Mass in Spanish and recorded it with a youth choir. At this time, he participated in a variety of concerts, conferences and Christian music events, including World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto.

In 2004, he compiled an anthology of religious songs for international distribution (Consagrados a Ti). In 2005-2006, he took part in a number of collaborative recordings, and began graduate studies at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C.

Father Fones finds in the Society of Jesus “a privileged means to expand [my] heart for the men and women of our times. Whether in a classroom or parish,” he explains, “among indigenous people or in a recording studio, in every place, a man can consecrate his life to the service of faith and the promotion of justice.”