Luc Benoît Valérie Jean Laurent Marie Versteylen (

Borgerhout Borgerhout () is the smallest districts of Antwerp, district of Antwerp, Belgium. , the district housed 45,769 inhabitants on 3.93 km². It was an independent municipality until January 1983. The postal area code for Borgerhout is 2140. Geography ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, 11 September 1927 – 10 February 2021) was a Flemish

Jesuit priest The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and founder of the environmental movement

Agalev Groen (; ), founded as Agalev, is a green Flemish political party in Belgium. The main pillars of the party are social justice, human rights, and ecologism. Its French-speaking equivalent is Ecolo; the two parties maintain close relations with ...

. In his youth, Luc Versteylen was a member of

Verdinaso Verdinaso (''Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal-Solidaristen'', ), sometimes rendered as Dinaso, was a small fascist political movement active in Belgium and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands between 1931 and 1941. Verdinaso was founded by Jori ...

. In his own words, as a 15-year-old volunteer aid worker, he received his priestly calling when he witnessed the havoc and human tragedy caused by the American air raid on Mortsel in April 1943. Versteylen was ordained a priest in 1959 and in 1960 became a teacher at

Xaverius College Xaverius College, in Borgerhout, near Antwerp, Belgium, is affiliated with the Jesuits in Flanders, the northern and western part of Belgium where Dutch is spoken. History Xaverius College enrolls about 900 students, girls and boys, between 6 ...

in Borgerhout, where he had himself studied during the Second World War. Luc Versteylen spent the last years of his life in the WZC Wommelgheem care home near Selsaete castle in

Wommelgem Wommelgem () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Wommelgem proper. In 2021, Wommelgem had a total population of 12,991. The total area is 13.01 km². Economy Wommelgem i ...

, where he died as a result of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

on 10 February 2021, at age 93, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium The COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Belgium on 4 February 2020, when one of a group of nine Belgians repatriated from Wuhan to Brussels was repor ...

References

1927 births 2021 deaths Belgian environmentalists 20th-century Belgian Jesuits 21st-century Belgian Jesuits Political party founders Clergy from Antwerp Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium Sexual abuse scandal in the Society of Jesus {{Belgium-RC-clergy-stub