We continue our series in honour of the Year for Priests. This week: Fr Peter Bianchini – Highgate.
By Anthony Barich
Highgate parish priest Fr Peter Bianchini’s grandmother knew her prayers would be answered when she walked out to the backyard of her Queen’s Park home and saw him saying Mass for her chickens when he was five.
And back then it was prior to Vatican II – so he was treating the chickens to the Latin Mass. He’d put a hole in a towel and used it as a chasuble – the outermost liturgical vestment worn by priests.
Fr Peter, 60, celebrated the 35th anniversary of his ordination on August 31 with a gathering the day before, and his grandmother – who regularly prayed for a priest to come out of the families of each of her eight children – loves telling the story of the chickens.
There’s a strong history of priests and nuns to come out of the Bianchini family. Fr Peter’s grandmother’s prayers were certainly answered as his uncle is now Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton.
His late aunt was also a Josephite Sister.
Going back a few generations, his ancestors have been missionary priests in Argentina, the Philippines and Rome.
But that wasn’t what got him into the priesthood. While his parents and grandparents created a fertile ground for vocations, Fr Peter says it was overwhelmingly his family’s acceptance of the possibility of one of their sons becoming a priest.
“You never knocked on grandma’s door,” Fr Peter says.
“You went around the side of the house and, if you heard muttering, you knew they were praying. We often prayed the Rosary.”
He’s always had a fascination for birds, and today has quails, finches, budgerigars, canaries and a chicken out the back of his presbytery – not to mention a pink Galah.