By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

FORT THOMAS - As a sixth-grade student, the Rev. Joe Thaler remembers hearing a Maryknoll missionary priest talk about his life in Africa.

"I had never met anyone who worked outside the United States and enjoyed his work the way he did," Thaler said. "He couldn't wait to go back to Africa."

Now 54 and himself a Maryknoll priest since 1977, Thaler often feels the same way about Nepal, a country the Northern Kentucky native has worked in for nearly 20 years.

"I've been blessed by great friendships and the great love of people in Nepal, not only other Catholics, but the Nepali people as well," Thaler said.

Maryknoll is a U.S.-based Catholic missionary movement made up of religious sisters, brothers, priests and lay people devoted to helping the poor. More than 550 Maryknoll priests and brothers serve all over the world, primarily in Africa, Asia and South America.

His time in Nepal, where he works as the only non-Nepali in the Ministry of Health, has not only enriched his own faith, but given him a profound respect for the faith of others.

"That's been the real gift of living in an interfaith community," Thaler said of his Katmandu home, where he has Muslim neighbors to the building he shares with Hindu believers, a Buddhist Sherpa family and a fellow Catholic priest.

"Every one of us is strong in our faith, but we're respectful of each other. It's led to a wonderful dialogue of faith," he said. "I have an appreciation of other people's cultures and faiths. That's what is really required of us today. We need to open up our minds and hearts to other people and respect each other, despite our differences."

But he's also found his own faith deepened, especially through celebrating an English-language Mass on Sundays and weekdays at the first Catholic parish in Nepal, the Church of the Assumption in Katmandu.

For Thaler, who grew up in Cold Spring, long separations from his family have been the hardest part of his work as a missionary. But he takes advantage of any time he can spend at the Fort Thomas home of his parents, Leo and Mary Jane, visiting family and friends.

"The hardest thing is you miss your family, you miss your parents," he said. "But that's really compensated for by the joy of living overseas. The people are often happy to have you there."

While in Greater Cincinnati before returning to Nepal on Saturday, Thaler has celebrated Mass at his home parish, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cold Spring.

But there are other aspects of Greater Cincinnati he tries to take in - especially Limburger cheese and certain German treats - before returning to his diet of rice, lentils and sometimes chicken or goat.

"I'm still learning a lot about the Nepalese people, and I look forward to continuing that," he said.

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E-mail kbvance@adelphia.net