2 Former Hostages Reunited After Jenco Delivers Message to Runcie

Father Lawrence M. Jenco, freed after nearly 19 months of captivity in Lebanon, conveyed a secret message Thursday from his Shia Muslim kidnapers to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Roman Catholic priest later had a surprise reunion with another former American hostage, the Rev. Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian minister.

Jenco, 51, who appeared to be ailing, told a news conference that his captors gave him a Bible, and he said that he prayed, “God, I’m no Job.” The Old Testament tells the story of the tribulations Job faced as a test of his faith.

Jenco delivered the kidnapers’ message to Archbishop Robert A. K. Runcie, spiritual head of the Church of England, during a private meeting in the prelate’s study at Lambeth Palace. The message was not disclosed, but Jenco said it was the same one he gave Pope John Paul II on Wednesday at the Vatican.

Churches to Answer

Terry Waite, whom Runcie sent to Lebanon several times last year to try to win the hostages’ freedom, said he would issue a joint response from both churches at a news conference today.

Waite, a lay member of the Anglican Church, refused to say what role if any he had in gaining Jenco’s freedom. He was in Amman, Jordan, at the time of Jenco’s release, and would say only that his presence in the region “was not coincidental.”

Jenco is to fly to Washington today to deliver a message from the kidnapers to President Reagan.

The kidnapers, members of a extremist Shia group called Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), are holding three other Americans hostage. They claim to have killed a fourth American hostage, but his body has not been found.

Jenco said he has not told anyone what the kidnapers wanted him to say to Reagan. “It’s in my heart,” he said. “It’s only in my heart, and no one else knows it.”

Heart Problems

Jenco, of Joliet, Ill., was kidnaped in Muslim West Beirut on Jan. 8, 1985. He was freed last Saturday. His captors cited his deteriorating health as a reason for letting him go. Doctors who examined him at a U.S. Air Force hospital in West Germany said he suffers from heart disease.

After seeing Runcie, Jenco was reunited with Weir, the 61-year-old cleric who was held captive by Islamic Jihad for 16 months before being released last September. The two clerics last saw each other when they were hostages together.

They embraced warmly, and Jenco kissed Weir on both cheeks.

At the news conference, Jenco, pale, drawn and speaking in a low voice, said the reunion with Weir was a “very deep emotional strain.”