‘It Hurts So Much’ : Faith, Fears, Pain Mark Vigil for Hijack Hostages

The travelers left two weeks ago on their pilgrimage to the holy places of the Middle East after a bon voyage party of wine toasts, prayers and hugs at St. Margaret Mary Roman Catholic Church.

On Friday, friends and relatives of the 18 travelers--hostages on a TWA airliner--returned to the red-brick church in this tiny community to hold each other, listen to news reports and pray as they waited.

A handwritten note on the church door announced a special evening Mass. It didn’t have to explain why.

“This is a tragedy for our faith community,” said Mary Lamczyk, a friend of many of the hostages. “It hurts so much.”

‘Parish Praying for Them’

“Those people are strong in faith, and we’re strong around here, and we’ve got a whole parish pulling and praying for them,” said church secretary Jackie Soucek. “Nothing can happen to those people.”

The jet was hijacked by Muslim terrorists as it was flying the Athens-to-Rome leg of the trip back to the United States. Thirty-four of the passengers, including three priests, are from Algonquin and other small towns west of Chicago.

Their visit to Israel included a side trip to the Greek islands.

Dozens of parishioners stopped by St. Margaret Mary in Algonquin on Friday, huddling around the radio, answering phone calls and notifying relatives who had expected the travelers to return home Friday night. Some walked quietly into the chapel to pray.

Yellow Ribbon on a Tree

Half a dozen baby white roses had been placed at the altar. A yellow ribbon was tied around a honey locust tree outside. It will stay there, said church member Annamarie Vann, “until they come back and Father Bill takes it off.”

Father P. William McDonnell, St. Margaret’s pastor, was among the hostages. A photograph of a smiling McDonnell was propped on a chair in the church office.

Only a few weeks before his departure, parishioners recalled Friday, he had delivered a sermon on martyrdom. “Most of us will not be asked to become martyrs,” the priest said then. “But we should, in the way we live, not be afraid to lay our lives down for our friends.”

Shoulders rounded, eyes red from crying, faces drawn and tense, the parishioners stood around the radio. Some gasped when news reports indicated that some hostages had been beaten and threatened. But the release of Janet Novak from Algonquin, along with some women from other Chicago-area churches, gave them reason for hope.

‘Never Again Be Apathetic’

The people of the parish “will never again be apathetic about the global village,” said church member Martha Bartholomew.

Simon Grossmayer Jr., whose father and mother were on the hijacked plane, said he had warned his father not to take the trip. “I really read him the riot act. I told him it was trouble over there (in the Middle East),” Grossmayer said. “But he was just so excited to go.”

Hundreds gathered for prayer vigils at St. Peter’s Church in nearby Geneva and St. Patrick’s Church in St. Charles, both of which had church members in the traveling party.

“We will storm the gates of heaven with our prayers,” Stan Szara, deacon of St. Peter’s, told about 100 worshipers.

For many in Algonquin, a farming community of 6,000, it was hard to believe that a terrorist act halfway around the world could hit so close to home.

‘I Can’t Believe This’

“I can’t believe this is happening,” said Mary Lamczyk, who drove to St. Margaret Mary after she heard the news “because this is their home and this is my home.”

The church, on a hill above the Fox River, was built two years ago, largely through the efforts of McDonnell.

The churches had planned the group journey several months ago. On May 31, when friends and family gathered at St. Margaret Mary to wish them a safe trip, “it was like a holiday,” said Martha Bartholomew, who remembers giving each traveler a hug.

“It was not a vacation but the beginning of a pilgrimage,” she added.