Broken Rites Australia is researching Father Peter Chalk, who was a priest in a Catholic religious order called the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (or MSC). This order, which is sometimes known as the "Sacred Heart Fathers", operates some parishes and schools in Australia. The order provides opportunities for its Australian priests to travel overseas. At any one time, a significant proportion of the order's Australian priests are serving in Asia (especially India and Japan) and the Pacific.

In the 1970s, Chalk lived with about seven other MSC priests in the "Sacred Heart Monastery", which the order then operated at Croydon in Melbourne's east. This monastery was involved in the training of priests for the MSC order. During the late 1970s, Chalk also ministered at a nearby parish (St Anne's), conducted by the MSC order, serving the suburbs of Park Orchards and Warrandyte. As part of his role in that parish, Chalk conducted a youth group.

About 1980, he was an assistant priest at another MSC parish — St John the Apostle, Kippax, in Canberra. This parish has published a list of assistant priests who have served there. The list includes: "Peter Chalk (1980 - Japanese Studies)". This indicates that Chalk was then pursuing studies relating to Japan.

The 1981 Australian Catholic directory gave Chalk's address as the Yarra Theological Union (an ecclesiastical college) in Box Hill, Melbourne.

But his name was deleted from the 1983 directory. Evidently, at some stage, the MSC order arranged for Chalk to transfer to Japan, where this order has a presence.

The MSC order has stated that Chalk left the order "in 1996" and it says that he then stayed on in Japan as a lay person.

Over the years, a number of people have reported encounters that they allegedly had with Chalk during their youth in the 1970s. For example, one man (Michael, who was once a trainee priest in Melbourne) talked about Chalk in a program on Australia's Radio National on 14 April 2002, a transcript of which is preserved on the broadcaster's website. The mention of Chalk (and Michael) is in the second half of the transcript.

The MSC order in Australia claims that it does not know what Chalk is doing now but some persons who encountered him when they were young Melbourne in the 1970s would like to know.