GHENT: 7 December 2011 --  "The news of Father Marc’s death was expected, since he had been in hospital since last week. The family followed the news I received from Father Blanco day after day, very closely. We are so grateful to the confrères who assisted him in his last months, weeks and days. Now is the time to remember a great friend and father of many people.

Father Marc was born in Gullegem in 1938  to a working-class family. He himself had to go to work after primary school, in a factory where they made washing machines. (This is why the Salesian sisters have had a number of machines from the ‘Primus’ factory, and Father Marc took good care of those machines for them). But the Lord wanted him, and he joined the ‘late vocations program’ at Don Bosco Kortrijk. I got to know him when he came to the novitiate, one year behind me. He was a good, strong footballer and a good technician. He spent his free moments fixing bycicles, motorcycles and cars. He was always ready to do all kind of repairwork, maybe he liked that more than study! After philosophy he went to Korea and did his practical training at Don Bosco Center in Seoul.

We studied theology together in Leuven. We took notes most of the time in Korean so to keep practising, and all the seminars and papers we had to do we did about Korea and about evangelisation. Studying for him was reading texts and then meditating, thinking about it, in his armchair, and integrating the contents of the text. Highly intelligent as he was, he understood in depth what we were learning, and in the examinations he did very well. After ordination we were both responsible for the public church at Don Bosco Oud-Heverlee for one year, and then we moved on to do our Masters in missiology. His mother died not very long after his ordination; it seemed to us that she had waited for her son to be a priest.

Back in Korea in 1972 Father Marc went to the Don Bosco Center again, where he loved being with the working boys, teaching them a trade, and working with Brother Marino Bois. There was his life, in the midst of the boys, caring for them, listening to them, accompanying them to gain their place in society.

At one time his father fell ill, and Father Marc went home to assist him. After some time his father told him: ‘Marc, do not wait to go back to Korea; when you hear something about me, say one Hail Mary for me”. This was the profound faith of his parents and of his family, still now.

As a priest, still among the working youth, he became more and more involved in the direction of the house and of the province. He became vice-provincial and later provincial for two terms. When he was vice-provincial we worked together very closely with Brother Tadeus Oh as economer. Every week we used to meet in Shin Weol Dong to share about the running of the province. Father Marc was concerned about the formation of the young brothers and of ongoing formation of the priests, “did they understand rightly what Don Bosco wanted and do they interpret rightly for Korean culture?” This was his constant concern. Little by little people in the Salesian Family discovered the great wisdom of this good Salesian and priest. So he became a very welcome guide for persons, for retreats, especially to the Salesian Sisters. Under his guidance the Yong Kil  mission in China came to be and he sent missionaries to African countries. But still all the time his heart was at Don Bosco Center with the boys.

His heart started giving him problems. In Leuven the doctors found it even necessary to put him on the list of patients for a heart transplant. To this end he remained some six months in Belgium waiting to be called. When finally the call came they diagnosed his situation as too good for a transplant thanks to his continued rest. He decided to return immediately to Korea as he knew a good Korean doctor would follow him there. After some lesser surgery he recovered well, until his heart began to weaken and he had to retire from activities. The last few years he had to stay calmly in his room and give guidance to many people who would come to see him.

Dear boys, Salesians, Sisters, Cooperators and friends, we have lost a great friend and good father. But, we have not lost him. In one way we have gained him more now, as we can call on him at all times. Each one of us will remember one or other word or attitude of Father Marc's, guard it well, as he approached you with great love, the love he himself had received from God in order to convey it to you. Here we really have a person who has spoken to us of God, not always in brillant words but always true and transparent ones. We have all learned very much from this authentic Salesian, it is now the time to share it with each other and bring to life in ourselves the great love Father Marc has shown for the young and the poor.

+ Youn Luca Ju Kyo
(Luc Van Looy, SDB – bishop of Gent