Fr. Robert J. Falk, SDB (1932-2022)

Fr. Robert Joseph Falk, SDB (1932-2022)

Fr. Robert J. Falk, SDB, a longtime Salesian missionary to Korea, went home to the Lord on the afternoon of April 13, 2022, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul.  He was 90 years old and had been a professed Salesian of Don Bosco for more than 66 years and a priest for 59 years.

Fr. Falk was a native of Green Bay, Wisc., one of four sons of Manuel James Falk and Alice Burlow Falk.  He was born on January 2, 1932, and was baptized on January 24, 1932, at St. Joseph’s Church in Green Bay and confirmed in the same church at an unknown date.

Bob went to St. Joseph’s parish school, then to Central Catholic High School, run by the Norbertines.  He began college at St. Norbert College.  With a Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship, he was able to transfer to the University of Notre Dame.  This scholarship originates from the Oneida Golf and Country Club in Green Bay, where Bob had worked in the locker room.

At age 21, Bob came to the Salesians and entered the Sons of Mary Program for “late vocations” at Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., on September 19, 1953.  He attributed his vocation to “a good Christian family and a good Catholic high school run by the Norbertine Fathers.  The environment—contact with some very pastoral priests and missionaries—instilled in my heart the desire to do some good, to help the less fortunate.”  Later, at Notre Dame one of the priests advised him to join the Salesians.

He was admitted to St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Newton on September 7, 1954, which was guided by Fr. Aloysius Bianchi as master.  He made his first profession of religious vows there on September 8, 1955.  Some of his classmates were Tony Ambrogio, John Blanco, Francis Bracchi, Gus Hagus, George Hanna, Jean-Paul Lebel, Joe Lockwood, Orlando Molina, Gerard Richard, Alfred Rinaldi, Romeo Trottier, Robert Uzzilio (who later joined the Bridgeport Diocese), and Charles Verville—obviously quite a class!

Becoming a Missionary

Bro. Falk graduated from Don Bosco College with a B.A. in philosophy in June 1956.  Having volunteered for the missions, he was sent to Korea in November 1956 after obtaining the necessary visas.  He did practical training at the Salesian high school in Kwangju, South Korea (1956-1959), teaching English, coaching basketball, and caring for “around 100 needy boys who were living with us.”  He completed tirocinium ottimamente, according to his provincial.

Bro. Bob Falk with students at Kwangju, 1956

Therefore the superiors decided to admit him to perpetual vows before he began his theological studies, and the provincial requested that he make the necessary retreat in the U.S.  He returned to the States and made his perpetual profession in Newton on September 8, 1959.

Bro. Falk went to Turin to study at the Pontifical Athenaeum Salesianum (the “Crocetta,” from its neighborhood).  He earned an STL there and was ordained on February 11, 1963.

After ordination, Fr. Falk returned to Korea and spent the rest of his life there.  His first priestly assignment was with the aspirants in Seoul (1963-1965).  In 1965 he was appointed director of the high school and Salesian community at Kwangju and served a six-year term.

Leadership of the Korean Salesians

For the following year he was posted to Seoul as director of the Don Bosco Youth Center for poor working young men (1971-1972).  His term was interrupted by his nomination as superior of the Korean Delegation, a fairly autonomous section of the Japanese Province at that time.  According to Fr. Falk it was a turbulent period.  Little love was lost between Koreans and Japanese after 35 years of Japanese occupation of the country (1910-1945).  As the first “local” superior of the delegation, Fr. Falk succeeded in uniting the confreres (young Koreans and older European and American missionaries) and properly structuring the Salesian works.  He served in that office until 1978

Fr. Falk was succeeded as delegation superior by Fr. Luc Van Looy, a Flemish missionary who spoke about seven languages fluently and later became a member of the Salesian general council, vicar of the Rector Major, and bishop of Ghent in his native Flanders.  He once told Jim Hurley “that when he spoke English he was often mistaken for an American, and Americans sometimes mistook him for someone from Wisconsin.  Remarkably, he got both his mastery of English and his Wisconsin accent from Bob Falk.”

Of Fr. Falk Bishop Van Looy writes:  “For me too he was a saintly confrere. When I followed him as superior of the Korean delegation, I nominated him master of novices; at that he came to tell me: ‘Luke, this is the first mistake you have made as a superior.’ This says everything about him.”

In 1984 the delegation was promoted to a vice province and in 1998 to a full province.  It currently has 117 Salesians.  The numbers of young and now-middle-aged Korean Salesians speak of the formation that Fr. Falk instilled in his novices and others.

Recalling the history of the Salesians in Korea, which began after the Korean War (1953), he told the newsletter of Evans Scholars Alumni Association that, apart from the Salesian schools and youth centers, “In the beginning, … almost every boy was poor, hungry and in need.  This meant food, study, trades and a place to sleep.  Now the boys come from the streets, juvenile courts, children of poor leper families, boys abandoned by their parents. . . .  Our boys ate only twice a day and then just a little rice and Kimchi.  Their homes were so poor, so cold.  However, despite all the difficulties there was definitely hope and joy.  Joy was present because they had one another, they share the little they had.  I was often touched by the generosity of the poor.”

Given a well-earned sabbatical year, he went to Rome for study at the Salesian Pontifical University (1978-1979).  On his return to Korea, he served two periods as master of novices in (1979-1990 and 1992-1997), at times doubling also as community director.  He was also the Korean Province’s delegate for the past pupils and the Salesian Cooperators, the ecclesiastical assistant for the Don Bosco Volunteers, and for many years a member of the provincial council.

From 1990 to 1992 he was director of one of the Seoul communities, and from 1993 to 1999 he directed the Salesian house at Dae Jeon. He became director again at Kwangju from 1999 to 2003.  He spent 2003-2008 as director of an out-of-country Korean mission, where he was, among other things, very supportive of American lay missioners there.

In 2008 Fr. Falk returned to Kwangju as spiritual director of the house of formation.  Eventually his health declined, and in 2019 he moved to the provincial house in Seoul.

The Grace of Vocation

At the time of his 50th anniversary of profession (2005), Fr. Falk wrote:  “These 50 years have been years of joy and grace. The greatest joy has been the grace to love God, the Salesian confreres, and the young in a family, in our Salesian community. The joy of praying together, working together, living together has made everything so joyful, so rewarding.”

He very much enjoyed doing retreat work, any sort of youth work, and assisting young workers.  In 2001 he wrote in the Evans Scholars newsletter:  “I’ve been in Korea since 1956 and … I’ve enjoyed every day here in this wonderful country, and the Korean people and our boys have been so good to me—too good.  I’ve truly found another family.  I’m lucky to have two families.  This is much better than a hole-in-one.  By the way, I never had a hole-in-one, but ‘almost.’”

He continued:  “[I] desire to share the joy of Christ with our boys and, in return, I have received and continue to receive much joy and wisdom from our boys and the Korean people.  I’ve learned that we Christians do not have a monopoly on love.  The spirit of love is present, especially in the poor.  My motivation and my joy is to share somehow in the lives of those I encounter in my daily routine—to be present at the right moment, to say a kind word, to feel the pain and suffering and to somehow participate in this person’s, this boy’s situation.  Why have I been called to this?  That is the mystery of life.  We are all called, and we all respond in different ways.  I truly don’t feel that what I have done is special.”

Assisting Salesian Lay Missioners

That his life and ministry was more than special is attested by SLM Matt Sullivan, who ministered under him at that out-of-Korea mission:  “Fr. Bob was a great man. In some ways it is fitting that we lost him during Holy Week, but I feel the world is a bit worse without him in it.  I’ll always remember having coffee with him after lunch and talking about the challenges of living our host country and learning its language. You could also see how the other Salesians, students, and even the government officials at the school respected and admired him.”

Matt’s father Neil visited the school and offers his own tribute:  “We are so sorry to hear this.  Fr. Bob was a Saint.  If someone asked to be shown a faithful follower of Jesus in this world, I would say Fr. Bob. What a wonderful person and Christian. He use to call us from Korea on almost a regular basis by computer. Every phone call he mentioned you [Matt] and thanked you for your service. It was always about others and never about himself.  He served in an unselfish manner for over 60 years in service of God through the Salesians.  I feel the world has reduced good with his passing.  I expect he is on the express line into Heaven. We had the honor to know him.”

Funeral Rites

Fr. Falk was waked at the Salesian provincial house from Thursday to Saturday. Funeral will be on Saturday, just with prayers for the dead.  Fr. Henry Bonetti explains: “We wake for three days all day and night. Every hour on the hour there are about 30 minutes of prayer in groups. The prayers are sung in the old-fashioned Confucian tone. Some Psalms like the Miserere and a litany of the saints (many, many saints!), and after each saint is added, 'Pray for Fr. Robert Falk.' Today [Thursday] till three the body lay exposed and people could come to view it. But at three we had a 'Placing in the Coffin' ceremony that has its own liturgy according to Korean custom. After that the coffin is closed and tied with white cloth ribbons, then goes back out to again lying under a black cloth covering till the funeral. You don’t get to see the body again.”

Fr. Bonetti’s eulogy during the days of the wake merits inclusion:

“You ask me how he lived.  He lived like a saint.  He lived like Don Bosco and St. Francis de Sales. He lived the ‘little virtues’ to such a degree that they became great virtues.  He lived what Don Bosco says about the conduct of Louis Comollo.  His conduct “was made up of many small virtues, but practiced in such a way as to make him universally admired as a model of extraordinary virtue.”

“In the novitiate [at Newton] on the side wall of the chapel was a gospel verse suggested by Fr. Angelo Franco, ‘I have come to set the world on fire.’  Well, Bob was not going to set the world on fire. He just let the world set him on fire.  I believe he practiced ‘the Presence of God’ at an eminent degree, finding God in whatever he was doing at the time.  Like Francis de Sales and Don Bosco, he took everything as the will of God:  ‘Ask for nothing, refuse nothing.’

“He asked for no position.  When it was thrust on him, he fulfilled his office with calm and humility, without any trepidation. He had no agenda; he made no projects, no plans. He just took life as it came to him, helped people out as they needed it, solved problems as they needed solving.  If someone came to visit (I would say they were more than 75% women, both lay and nuns), he would sit with them over tea and cake, for as long as was needed, one, two, three hours.  It didn’t matter.

“As for events, he never hurried; he waited, almost unperturbed, for problems to solve themselves.  This, of course, exasperated lesser mortals to no end, but when everything was said and done, he was usually right. This type of heart toward God, people, and events gave him a wisdom that was sometime uncanny in its accuracy.  Short, one-sentence advice given in candor and loving-kindness usually found its mark.  One would later think that the words came not from the earth, but from heaven.  He was this kind of man—unpretentious, unassuming, willing to be subject to others and events, letting them dictate to him what God wants and what he should do to fulfill His will.

“He liked sports and was happy when the young were happy. In the afternoon you could almost always find him on the court with the young.  Later, he remained on the side but still there cheering the young on.  He was, as in the title of a book by the Servant of God Baroness Catherine Doherty, one of the People of the Towel and Water.  It was fitting that he died during these days when our salvation is achieved in humility and love from the foot-washing to the foot of the cross.  For Bob was the incarnation of that humble service that leads to loving redemption.”

Apropos of Fr. Bonetti’s reference to “the court” comes this short note from another Salesian Lay Missioner, Greg Lim:  “Fr. Bob had already left the [out-of-country] school before we arrived in August 2008.  Eric, Claire, and I did have the fortune of meeting him in Korea in April 2009, though.  The Salesians had invited us to the provincial house in Seoul during a short school break.  Fr. Bob just happened to be visiting the provincial at the same time.  He invited us to stay with him if we ever found ourselves in Kwangju.  I wish I could have seen him in action on the basketball court.  We heard many stories about his proficient shooting.”