(ANS – Kinshasa) – Salesian Father Léopold Feyen, 82, was killed last Tuesday, December 12th, in the municipality of Masina, in the area of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The priest was found dead in his room, in the parish of Mary Help of Christians.

Léopold Feyen was born in Hechtel, Belgium, on August 19, 1941. In 1961 he made his First Profession as a Salesian of Don Bosco and in August 1967 he professed his perpetual vows. He was ordained a priest on September 13, 1969.

During his nearly forty years of mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he had also poured his energies into the work of the “City of Youth”, in Lubumbashi, one of the best vocational schools in Katanga, which offers courses in carpentry, mechanics, construction, welding, mechanics and agriculture and includes a boarding school for 60 young people.

His death deeply saddened the local community. Fr. Feyen, who everyone knew as “Koko Pol”, was elderly and struggled with health problems. Although he no longer carried out demanding tasks in the local community, he still followed the management of the gardens cultivated to produce fruits and vegetables to be used for schools.

Over the many years of work he dedicated his life to young people, especially the least, the abandoned, and with the heart of the Good Shepherd, becoming like Don Bosco, a “Father, Teacher and Friend” for them.

The Salesian Africa Congo Congo (ACC) Vice-Province expressed its condolences through a statement in which they invited people to offer prayers for Fr. Léopold Feyen and his family and in which the Salesians were asked to remember his memory, on the basis of Article 54 of the Salesian Constitutions and Article 76 of the Regulations.