W E S T E R N A U S T R A L I A’ S A WA R D - W I N N I N G C AT H O L I C N E W S P A P E R S I N C E 1 8 7 4
THE RECORD
We d n e s d a y, 1 0 N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 T H E
P A R I S H . T H E N AT I O N . T H E W O R L D .
Faith in Stone
$2.00
THERECORD.COM.AU
La Sagrada Familia, consecrated 130 years after it was commenced - PAGES 8&9
Archbishop calls Perth to join global Vigil
Great day for Brian and Miriam as four champions of human life meet up
Pope Benedict XVI has asked every diocesan Bishop in the world to join him in a vigil for life on November 27. Perth will be joining him. BY BRONIA KARNIEWICZ Archdiocesan Respect Life Office Catholics around the world, including Perth, will join Pope Benedict XVI in a Vigil for Life, praying “for protection of every human being called into existence” on Saturday, 27 November. The Pope has written to every diocesan Bishop in the world, asking them to join in this significant prayer intention he has termed a “Vigil for All Nascent Human Life.” Archbishop Hickey will celebrate the 6pm Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Victoria Square on the same date and continue the vigil for three hours more until 10pm; many other parishes in Perth will also mark the occasion. The purpose of the vigil “is to thank the Lord for His total self-giving to the world and for His Incarnation which gave every human life its real worth Please turn to Page 6
Unforgettable moment: Miriam Peachey and her husband Brian are presented to Pope Benedict XVI by Archbishop Barry Hickey in Rome on 13 October. The Peacheys, Archbishop Hickey and Pope Benedict have all been outspoken defenders and promoters of a principle that PHOTO: L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO makes numerous Australians uncomfortable: the sanctity of human life.
BY PETER ROSENGREN FOR possibly the first time in his life, Brian Peachey was lost for words. Although they have visited Rome like thousands of other pilgrims and have attended audiences with several Popes over several decades, Mr and Mrs Peachey have never found themselves face to face with the Vicar of Christ. For the long-time political campaigner, who has never been known to be short of a word, it was the sort of moment you only dream about. However, Mr Peachey, who is Chairman of Pregnancy Assistance, was astonished when Archbishop Barry
Hickey invited him and his wife Miriam to a special seating area during a general papal audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, 13 October. General papal audiences are attended by thousands of pilgrims but the chance to personally meet and talk with the Holy Father is a rare privilege, and one that is all the more special for the Peacheys. In their own ways, each of the four who met during the audience are all champions of innocent life, especially that of the unborn child. Pope Benedict has often been pointed in his defence of the sanctity of innocent life at every stage from conception. Archbishop Hickey founded the Pregnancy Assistance
organisation together with Mr Peachey and was outspoken during the 1998 political debate that led to the legalisation of the killing of unborn children in WA. Together, Brian and Miriam have raised eight children and have consistently committed themselves to campaigning for the sanctity of human life at every stage of its existence - both through Mr Peachey’s longstanding involvement in state and federal politics (including occasional forays as a Democratic Labour Party or, in recent years, as a Christian Democrat, candidate) but most impressively through their decades-long participation in a range of grassroots pro-life activities.
However, it is their faith, marriage, home and family life that has always been the wellspring for such commitments outside the famed tribal home. It was Mr Peachey who was the founding Chairman of Pregnancy Assistance, an Archdiocese-supported agency which offers counselling, accommodation and support to women and girls who are experiencing what are often referred to as ‘crisis pregnancies’; those in which the mothers may be discriminated against by fathers or family, or which they are pressured to end through abortion. Since its founding in 1996, Pregnancy Assistance has been putting the pro-life Please turn to Page 4
Priests requested to leave SJOG retirement Villa BY BRIDGET SPINKS A young woman prays the rosary during a US National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington in this file photo. Pope Benedict has called a worldwide vigil for life in all Catholic parishes for 27 November. Archbishop Barry Hickey will lead the major Perth vigil in St Mary’s Cathedral. PHOTO: CNS/NANCY WIECHEC
SEVEN elderly priests have been asked to relocate from the St John of God Villa in West Leederville by 30 June next year. The five priests from the Perth Archdiocese and two from Bunbury are, bar one in his late 70s, aged in their 80s and 90s. Perth Archdiocesan priest
liaison officer Brian Bonzer said that their names have been put down at retirement and nursing homes such as the Little Sisters of the Poor in Glendalough, Mercy Aged Care and Castledare Village in Wilson. One priest has been accepted at the Little Sisters of the Poor Home of the Aged but is yet to take up residence.
Mr Bonzer told The Record that the priests’ next of kin were advised in June this year that the St John of God Villa would be reverting to a convent as of 30 June 2011 for use by the St John of God Sisters and that it would no longer be an aged care facility under government regulations. Mr Bonzer said that, as a convent, the St John of God
Villa would no longer be able to take any lay people, priests or Religious from any other order. “Their congregation had a strategic plan and that’s what they decided they needed to do” Mr Bonzer said. When the announcement was made in June this year, Bishop Sproxton visited and spoke to each priest individually about the decision.