Br. Aloysio Persch, S.J.

By Fr. John Locke, S.J.
(From the Nepal Region’s 50th Anniversary Book, 2001)

Br. Louis, as he was known in Nepal, is another of those destined to travel to various places. Born In 1928 in Porto Alegre, Brazil of a family of German immigrants, he joined the Society in Brazil in 1946. Louis has a gift for languages – his first language German, he learned Portuguese only when he went to school. This gift and his cooking skills prompted his superiors to send him to Italy where he spent over twenty years as cook for the Jesuit community at Castel Gondolfo, followed by a couple of years as porter at the Gregorian University.

After that he returned to his province as secretary to the provincial. As he sorted the mail one day, he found an appeal from Nepal for Jesuits to work there and asked if he could come. His provincial agreed, and he arrived in Nepal in October of 1980. He devoted several months to the study of Nepali, which eventually he spoke surprisingly well.

In 1981 he joined the community of the Research Centre to organise the library of the Centre and to assist in a variety of other ways. On the days the cook was absent he revived his cooking skills and turned out wonderful meals. Having completed his library work at the Research Centre, he returned to Brazil for a visit and came back to Nepal to go to Godavari where he continued his library work and assisted the community in a variety of other works.

In 1992 the Jesuits of Nepal bade goodbye to Louis with a heavy heart as he left to take up the work of minister to the Jesuit Community at the Biblical Institute In Israel. After two years there he returned to Brazil where he continues his work at the College of Medianeira in Curitiba.