John Tae-Suk Lee (1962 - 2010)
The unknown Korean 'saint' of Sudan
John Tae-suk Lee was a South Korean missionary to southern Sudan, who was a medical practitioner before he became a Roman Catholic priest. He died on 14 January 2010 at the age of 48 from colon cancer but not before leaving behind a truly wonderful legacy and motivating thousands of people to do the same as he did; mainly, to feel and show unconditional love towards those less fortunate and to know that happiness exists everywhere, even in a country suffering from war, poverty, and disease.
After his ordination in 2001, he travelled to Tonj, a town in southern Sudan deeply affected by war. He provided medical services, built a medical clinic with his own hands, established a school, gave music lessons, created a brass band with the children, and much more. However, the most touching mission he did was his tender ministration at the Tonj leper colony. Leprosy (or, rather, Hansen's disease) is prevalent in that particular region and John Lee spent countless hours cleaning wounds, bandaging rotting limbs, driving out to make personal visits to those who could not move, and procuring medicine to alleviate the patients' pain. He worked tirelessly to save the lives of those others had abandoned, while giving the people of Tonj hope through music and education.
John Tae-Suk Lee was known to have a special way with the young people of Tonj. They were drawn to his winning personality and radiant smile. The locals knew the gentle confessor as “Fr Jolly” – a name that stuck. He built the local school with the help of students and taught maths and music. John Lee also started the Don Bosco Brass Band and found that music lifted up the youth, who were in dire circumstances. The Brass Band is now the most famous music group in southern Sudan.
John was extremely bright and had a joyful temperament. His, all too brief, life shows the great feats just one missionary can accomplish. As a result of his work there is now an infinitely higher standard of care for the victims of Hansen’s disease in southern Sudan.
After his death, a Korean television documentary about Fr. John’s life in Tonj was adapted into a powerful film, “Don’t Cry For Me Sudan.” Within 10 minutes of watching the film most people are reduced to tears. Some 120,000 people have watched the film in Seoul alone. Members of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the largest Buddhist denomination in South Korea, were greatly moved by the scenes depicting Fr John tending the lepers. Venerable Jaseung, the head of the order, admitted that he was unsure whether to show it to Buddhist monks and lay workers for fear they would convert to Catholicism after seeing it. “It depicts the good life of a Catholic missioner and I was worried some of us would convert to Catholicism after being moved by the film,” he said, but he went ahead because he believed that Fr. John was a good role model for Buddhists. “If we could have one Buddhist cleric like him, the better it would be for Buddhism,” he said.
Meanwhile, Catholics who are devoted to John Tae-Suk Lee are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his nickname, “the Schweitzer of Sudan”. For in some respects John Lee was an even better missionary than the Franco-German doctor and theologian. Albert Schweitzer was a great man, but is often charged with having held a snooty, superior attitude towards Africans. This could never be said of John Tae-Suk Lee, who is regarded by the southern Sudanese as a healer, friend and now an intercessor in heaven.