Léopold Feyen was born in Hechtel, Belgium, on 19 August 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 13 September 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 with health problems and, 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.
In the many years of work he dedicated his life to young people, especially the least, the abandoned, 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.
