Is "the rock" Peter or Peter's faith?

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Last weekend at Mass, my parish priest said something that did not sound right to me. He stated that the Catholic Church was founded on Peter’s faith. I didn’t think this sounded right, so I decided to send him an email, feeling certain that I had misheard him. He reiterated that position in his response to me, that the Church was founded on Peter’s faith, and explicitely not Peter himself.

I was going to respond to this, so I opened the Catechism. I thought paragraph 881 was pretty clear:
The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the “rock” of his Church. He gave him the keys of his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock. 400 “The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of apostles united to its head.” 401 This pastoral office of Peter and the other apostles belongs to the Church’s very foundation and is continued by the bishops under the primacy of the Pope.
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But then I read paragraph 424:
Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and confess: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ 8 On the rock of this faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ built his Church. 9
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I suppose my question is twofold. Was the Church founded on Peter or his faith? If it was Peter, how would you suggest I respond to my pastor, in light of paragraph 424?
 
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