Condition Called Satisfactory : Jenco Arrives in West, Gets Call From Pontiff

Father Lawrence M. Jenco, freed after nearly 19 months as a captive of Muslim extremists in Lebanon, arrived at a U.S. Air Force hospital here Sunday and was pronounced in satisfactory condition after his ordeal. He then received personal telephone calls from Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Col. Robert Gilmore, the hospital’s deputy director, said Jenco was tired after little sleep for three days and would have to undergo several days of medical examinations. These will include tests for his heart ailment, the reason cited by his captors for releasing him. Generally, however, Gilmore said, Jenco appeared to be in “satisfactory condition.”

The 51-year-old Roman Catholic priest will be reunited today with his two sisters, who are flying here on an official U.S. government plane from Washington.

Flown From Damascus

Jenco was flown here from Damascus, Syria, accompanied by Robert B. Oakley, head of the State Department’s anti-terrorism section, and Terry Waite, a special envoy for Robert A. K. Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Waite has visited the Middle East several times with the mission of trying to negotiate freedom for the hostages of such Muslim fundamentalist organizations as the shadowy Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), which abducted Jenco and apparently still holds at least three Americans.

At a news conference at the hospital here Sunday evening, Waite reported that the Pope, in his call to Jenco, said that he was “pleased and satisfied” at his release and continues to pray that the rest of the hostages will gain their freedom.

Runcie, senior prelate of the Church of England, gave the priest the same general message, Waite said.

Jenco was released by his captors in a Syrian-controlled area of eastern Lebanon on Saturday and taken by Syrian soldiers to Damascus, where he was turned over to U.S. authorities through the Syrian Foreign Ministry. He spent Saturday night as the guest of U.S. Ambassador William L. Eagleton Jr.

On Sunday, a U.S. Air Force C-9 Nightingale aircraft--a kind of airborne ambulance--flew to Damascus to pick him up and bring him to the Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt.

There, Jenco, wearing a simple black suit with a clerical collar and sporting a bushy beard, was met by American Ambassador Richard R. Burt and taken in a convoy to the hospital here.

The hospital has been a reception center for Americans freed from Middle East captivity, including 52 held for 444 days during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81.

Dozens of patients lining a balcony hung with American flags applauded Jenco as he got out of the van that brought him here and was greeted by Col. Ralph Rothstein, the hospital commander. The priest seemed tired, but he smiled as he walked from the van up the steps and into the hospital.

A journalist behind a barrier some distance away shouted a question about the condition of Terry A. Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent of the Associated Press, who is still held by Islamic Jihad. Jenco replied that Anderson is “very fine.”

A television reporter from a Chicago station rushed past the barriers and asked Jenco if he had any message for the people of Chicago.

“Tell the people I love them,” the priest said. “I can’t wait to have the Chicago wind in my face again.”

Held With 3 Others

Jenco, who headed the Beirut office of Catholic Relief Services, a New York-based charity organization, said in Damascus that he was held together with the 38-year-old Anderson; David P. Jacobsen, 55, who was administrator of the American University Hospital in Beirut, and Thomas Sutherland, 55, dean of the university’s School of Agriculture.

As Jenco walked inside the hospital, his departing words were: “Don’t forget. There are three more to come.”

No mention was made by Jenco--nor, later, by Waite at his news conference--of American diplomat William Buckley, who was abducted from a West Beirut street in March, 1984. Last October, Islamic Jihad claimed to have killed him, and Jacobsen, in a videotaped message carried by Jenco, also reported that Buckley was slain.

Waite told reporters that he hopes that the terrorists holding Anderson, Jacobsen and Sutherland will realize that many people have a certain amount of sympathy with some of their aspirations. But Waite could offer no information or informed speculation about how long the other three Americans might be held.

As many as seven Frenchmen are also being held by militant Muslim organizations after being kidnaped in Beirut.

Within the past year, five Britons were kidnaped by terrorists in Beirut. Two were later released, but two others were killed in retaliation for Britain’s support for the U.S. bombing raid on Libya last April, and the fifth was reported killed for the same reason.

Islamic Jihad--whose members are believed to be Shia Muslims loyal to Iran’s fundamentalist regime--has said it will continue to hold the Americans until Kuwait frees 17 Shias imprisoned there for bombing attacks on the American and French embassies.