“Love needs to be practised. Love means serving the needy.” These are the words by which Father Thomas Anthony Peyton lives. And for more than 30 years, the American Catholic priest has put those beliefs into action, serving the needy in prisons, hospitals, streets, countryside, and the isolated and deprived communities in both Hong Kong and Mainland China. He serves, as his fi rst priority, those who face prejudice, having been abandoned by society or being seen as a burden. These include prisoners, people suffering from mental illness or with mental disabilities, street sleepers, the elderly, the impoverished as well as those suffering from leprosy living in remote rural areas. Father Peyton believes that those who feel loved through others’ assistance will help other needy people. Little by little, the world will become a better place.

In 1981, Father Peyton was sent to Hong Kong by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers as a missionary. Since the 1980s, he has gone every week, as the Prison Chaplain of the Correctional Services Department, to different prisons to visit inmates. Separated from their families and lacking their support, many inmates feel depressed and lose any sense of hope. So during his visits, Father Peyton walks through the prison to talk to the inmates and gives them support and encouragement, to make them feel cared for and valued. His friendship, passion and perseverance for helping others have touched many prisoners, who have later been rehabilitated into society and started a new life.

When Father Peyton fi rst came to Hong Kong, he started work in Tuen Mun district, which, at the time, was a very new area. He regularly visited local residents to fi nd out their needs, and helped launch many new services, especially for underprivileged groups. For example, he recruited volunteers to guide and support local parents in caring for children with mental disabilities. He also campaigned for ramps for wheelchairs to be built on the pavements. In 2000, Father Peyton moved to serve the aging communities in Ngau Tau Kok, helping elderly people, who live on their own, and other needy residents.

In 1994, Father Peyton began his relief work in the Mainland, where he visited people suffering from leprosy in 12 provinces including Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan. Over the past decade, Father Peyton has also made weekly visits to inpatients at the Castle Peak Hospital. He also joins other members of the Street Sleepers Action Committee to visit local street sleepers.

Father Peyton, 80, will be retired in the next few years from his offi cial church duties. He plans to stay in Hong Kong even after retirement, so as to be close to people he has been serving. He says that as long as he is physically fi t, he is still keen to help those in need, especially to serve the prison inmates, the old districts’ residents, and the sick in the Mainland.