Rev Lou Dando SJ
Title:
Rev
First Name:
Aloysius
Middle Names:
Preferred Name:
Lou
Surname:
Dando
Order:
SJ
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Rchmond VIC
Country of Birth:
Australia
Date of Ordination:
Place of Ordination:
Dublin
Country of Ordination:
Ireland
Ordination Diocese:
Seminary:
Date of Death:
Place of Death:
Melbourne VIC
Country of Death:
Australia
Date of Burial:
Place of Burial:
Boroondara, Kew VIC
Country of Burial:
Australia
Find A Grave URL:
Biographical Notes
Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Dando, Aloysius
Pastor; born Richmond, Victoria, 20 April 1900; died Melbourne, 19 August 1967, aged 67.
Aloysius Dando, affectionately known as Lou, went to school in Richmond and to St Patrick's College, East Melbourne, where he was a prefect and a member of the first XVIII, but he found academic work difficult. He entered the Society at Loyola College, Greenwich, 20 February 1921, and went to Rathfarnham for his university studies, 1923-26, to Jersey for philosophy, 1926-29, and to Milltown Park for theology, 1929-33. Tertianship was at St Beuno's, 1933-34.
Dando returned to Australia, and taught for a few years at St Patrick's College, 1934-36, where he also edited the Patrician, but then began his best life's work in parishes. He was appreciated for the speed with which he said Mass on Sundays, and was called 'Ajax', after the glamour racehorse of the time. He worked within the Richmond parish, 1936-48, then was superior and parish priest of Norwood, South Australia, 1948-53, and finally worked at Lavender Bay, 1953-55. At Norwood he remodelled and extended the Church of St Ignatius.
His final work was as national director of the Pioneers of Total Abstinence, based at the provincial residence, 1955-67. This was a good appointment, for his almost Falstaffian figure and sense of fun dispelled any suspicion that his apostolate might be somehow permeated with wowserism. With this job he travelled much, even to New Guinea.
He was a very cheerful, generous, simple and popular man; good in any company, a great tonic to anyone depressed. He endeared himself to many people, helping, consoling and guiding. His service to the Society was entire and unsparing. He was lavish in financial expenditures, which did not always please more frugal superiors. In his later years he was a much appreciated villa master for the Melbourne scholastics at Barwon Heads. His suffering from heart disease that eventually killed him did not make any difference to his attitude to life or to his work. He died, as he lived, full of joy.
(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)