Fifteen years after the founding of Pregnancy Assistance in Perth, chairman Brian Peachey is passing on the baton. He talks to Mark Reidy about his abundant zest for life.
Brian Peachey’s office is a microcosm of his existence – congested, chaotic and full of his love and passion for life. After spending several hours with this 82 year old dynamo, one walks away with not only a sense of personal inadequacy, but also a touch of jetlag.
My primary goal for interviewing Brian is to delve into his role as chairman of Pregnancy Assistance (PA) over the past 15 years, a role he retired from on 12 October, 2011.
However, as Brian weaves his way through the history of his involvement with this Catholic agency, he regularly takes a tangent into other equally fascinating aspects of his very full life.
By the time we have finished, I have been taken on pilgrimages to Mexico, Egypt, Italy and Israel, relived his meeting with Pope Benedict, viewed photos of some of his nine children (one who passed away at a very young age) and numerous grandchildren, heard of his experiences in the Clontarf Boys Home, entered Vietnam to bring an orphan child to Australia just as the war broke out in the 1960s and stepped inside the inner sanctum of the ALP split in the 1950s in which he was intimately involved. In fact, after the latter I am left holding a photo of Brian with the late Bob Santamaria, a man he considered a friend, when they witnessed the West Coast Eagles winning their first AFL Grand Final in 1992.
When Miriam, his wife of 54 years, interrupts us to offer a drink, I think she is joking when she warns me I could still be here at nightfall. She is obviously well-versed with her husband’s unbridled enthusiasm and tendency to digress. However, while there is no doubting he is someone who is never short of a word, one he obviously has trouble pronouncing is “no”.
At an age when most people are planning to reap the fruits of their labours, Brian responded to a request by Archbishop Barry Hickey to establish a support and counselling agency for women who were contemplating abortion.
At the time Brian was president and co-founder of the Coalition for the Defence of Human Life, a group established to unite pro-life entities, so the step into providing spiritual, emotional and practical support seemed a natural one.
As he does with any venture he embraces, Brian put his heart, soul and hands into the project from the time PA first stepped into its premises at 195 Lord St, East Perth. “When we first stepped into the house in July, 1996, it was obvious the place had not been occupied for a number of years”, Brian recalls, “and it required a great deal of work before we could officially open to the public.”
A major part of this transformation was the establishment of a chapel, which Brian embraced with his usual gusto.
Not only did he design it but he also built the tabernacle, altar and stations of the Cross. He says it was only through divine intervention that he was able to complete such a task. “I’m a mug carpenter in my own right,” he says. “It was only with the help of my favourite saint – and carpenter – St Joseph, that the project was a success.”
Soon after, the organisation was officially recognised by the Perth archdiocese as a Private Association of Christ’s faithful and Archbishop Hickey celebrated the first Mass at the house.
Since then, Brian explains, Mass has been celebrated three times a week, ensuring the programme is always underpinned on firm spiritual foundations. Since its opening, PA has touched the lives of thousands of young women and their families through counselling, accommodation, information, clothing, furniture, pregnancy testing, referrals, financial guidance as well as through its quarterly magazine, Abundant Life, of which Brian is editor.
The success of the agency, which has registered more than 1,000 contacts in the past year, is a source of personal satisfaction for Brian, who sacrificed a great deal of time and energy challenging the secular push for abortions that is thrust into the faces of anyone dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. “It is such a vital ministry,” Brian expounds. “We live in a city that is killing a baby every hour of every day. If we can save even one life a year then I know the efforts of our team have been worthwhile.”
It is a team of which Brian is immensely proud, referring to them almost like a second family. “It is only because of the generosity and love of many volunteers and benefactors that PA has and is able to assist these young women,” he says with a proud, fatherly smile.
The decision to step away from this ministry has been a difficult and prolonged one, but he has finally been able to let go. “Initially, I planned on retiring in 2010,” he recalls, “but I wanted to leave PA knowing that its future was secure.”
He has certainly done that. During the past year he, along with new chairman Kieran Ryan, has been negotiating a partnership with St John of God Health Care (SJOGHC) for the management of both PA accommodation houses, St Joseph’s and Miriam House. On 3 October this year, SJOGHC Board approved the partnership that will run in accordance with all the principles outlined in PA’s constitution.
The closing of this chapter in his life, however, does not signal a slowing down for this exuberant veteran. In the confines of his home office, Brian’s zest for life is still very tangible. Wherever you turn in this crowded room, there seems to be yet another project in progress.
He shows me a draft of the first chapters of a book he is writing – tentatively, but I believe appropriately, titled An Abundant Life – which is one of the reasons he handed over the reins of PA. “It was something I had to do,” he shares. “I have been writing memories and ideas down for years and I want to wrap them all up in a book before I run out of time.”
The trouble is that, because he will probably remain active until the day he dies, he may never pen a conclusion to this tome.
In addition to organising a pilgrimage for Archbishop Hickey and 44 others to the 2012 Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next year, Brian has also started the wheels in motion for the beatification of Bob Santamaria and is soon to publish the second edition of his book The Gift of the Rosary. And if he ever finds time, he plans to formulate another five decades of the rosary focused on the life of St Joseph.
I leave our interview feeling both weary and inspired. Brian Peachey knows every life is a precious gift from God and that is why he will continue to make every moment of his own count. It is also why he is so passionate about protecting those in our society who are most vulnerable.
This faithful servant may no longer be on the frontline in the fight against abortion, but his legacy will no doubt live on in the countless lives of those who have and will continue to be rescued as a result of his desire to fulfil the will of his Heavenly Father.