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Father Lawrence Jenco
Upon his release in July 1986 from 19 months as a hostage in Beirut, Father Lawrence Jenco became a familiar figure the world over. Now, nearly three years after his ordeal, the Servite Catholic priest is minister at the University of Southern California's (USC) Newman Center in Los Angeles.
An articulate and thoughtful authority on the phenomenon of hostage taking, Father Jenco's observations combine religious insights into the horrors of Lebanon's civil war with personal observations about man's inhumanity to man.
Being a hostage "is a maddening experience," Father Jenco explains. "Terry Anderson's genius is being wasted. Terry with his great knowledge of the Middle East and empathy for the underdog-would be the best spokesperson the Shi'as could hope for.
"Being a hostage is day-in, day-out, boring to the point of insanity. I've heard that Terry was so distraught at one point that he hit his head against a wall until a French hostage forcibly held his bleeding head in his arms."
Father Jenco had served refugees in Thailand and Yemen before he traveled to Lebanon in late 1984 to direct Catholic Relief Services in Beirut. As he headed for his Beirut office on a January morning in 1985, he was abducted by gunmen. One of them shouted in English, his voice shaking with hatred, "You're a dead man."
Father Jenco was blindfolded, bound mummy fashion-with tape, and tossed into the space for spare tires beneath the bed of a truck. As the vehicle careened down the road, the bound and gagged priest realized his nose was bleeding....