Jenco Meets Reagan--’Completes My Mission’

Father Lawrence M. Jenco, freed after 19 months of captivity in Lebanon, delivered a confidential message from his captors to President Reagan on Friday and appealed to those still holding three American hostages “to continue the dialogue aimed at resolving the situation.”

In a statement that he read before a bank of cameras in the White House Rose Garden, Jenco urged his former captors to accept the offer of Anglican church envoy Terry Waite to act as an intermediary in winning the release of the remaining hostages.

“I’m not a politician; I’m a pilgrim,” Jenco said, recounting his travels over the last week as he has met with Pope John Paul II, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert A.K. Runcie, and Reagan in his effort to convey the urgency of the situation. “This completes my mission.”

Waite, a personal representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has made several trips to Lebanon on behalf of the hostages and was in Amman, Jordan, at the time of Jenco’s release last Saturday. Although Waite has refused to discuss his role in gaining Jenco’s freedom, he has said that his presence in the region “was not coincidental.”

‘Warm, Healing Experience’

The President and Nancy Reagan met with Jenco for half an hour. In a brief press conference after the meeting, Jenco said it was “such a warm, healing experience for me” and one that he found “unexpected, in a way.”

“I was treated almost like I was one of their family who had returned,” he told reporters, calling it “a tremendous joy” to be greeted so warmly after languishing for so long in captivity.

Standing with Jenco in the hot sun outside the Oval Office, Reagan said that “his being here is an answer to a great many prayers by all of us.”

The White House refused to divulge the contents of the secret message carried by Jenco. But a stiffly worded statement from Reagan released after the meeting conveyed his intention to hang tough in the struggle to win the hostages’ freedom.

“Those who held Father Jenco in cruel confinement must realize that their objectives cannot be achieved by these means,” Reagan said. He repeated his warning that the United States will “continue to hold the captors and those who support them responsible for the safety of all the remaining hostages.”

No Credit to Syria

The Shia Muslim extremists holding the hostages are believed to be responsive to Syrian influence, but the Administration did not specifically credit Syria with assisting in Jenco’s release. Instead, a White House statement expressed appreciation to the “many different nationalities and organizations who continue to work for the safe return of all hostages.”

White House spokesman Larry Speakes asked reporters to be sensitive to Jenco’s fragile condition and respect his wishes that he not be questioned aggressively. The press corps complied, treating Jenco with near reverence.

When asked what Reagan said to him in their private meeting, Jenco, 51, replied: “He gave me hugs and kisses.”

Although Jenco had carried out with him a videotaped appeal by fellow hostage, David P. Jacobsen, of Huntington Beach, Calif., to the U.S. government to initiate direct negotiations with their Muslim captors, Jenco did not publicly call on Reagan to alter his refusal to negotiate with terrorists. When asked if he believes that there was anything Reagan could do to be helpful, Jenco said he would discuss that in private.

Going Home to Chicago

Jenco, accompanied by his family, is flying home to Joliet, Ill., today.

At a London news conference before his departure for Washington with Jenco, Waite said he plans to return to Lebanon to seek the release of the remaining American hostages.

Waite, who traveled to Beirut three times last year in attempts to negotiate the release of hostages, said he would make the trip in response to requests from the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“His holiness, the Pope, and the Archbishop of Canterbury would wish the captors to meet with me as soon as possible to help find a solution to the problem based on the tenets common to Islam and Christianity,” Waite said.

Jenco, who appeared next to Waite at the London news conference, paid tribute to his missions to the region.

“I leave a dear friend, Terry Waite,” Jenco said. “Terry, thank you. God give you a good pair of pilgrim shoes and a very strong heart.”

In the past, much of Waite’s work has been conducted in secret, but the announcement of the upcoming trip was seen as a deliberate attempt to convey his readiness to negotiate to the captors, who are believed to be members of the radical Islamic Jihad group.

In exchange for the Americans, Islamic Jihad has demanded the release of 17 of its members held in Kuwaiti jails for their role in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies there.

Times staff writer Tyler Marshall, in London, contributed to this article.