FAMILY RECEIVES LETTER FROM KIDNAPED PRIEST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200123-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 123
• Publication Date: March 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/31: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200123-5
ID
NER' YORK DAILY NET'S
4 "arch 1985
Family receives Ieer
dram kidnampectad priest
Chicago (UPI)-The family of Rev. Lawrence Afar"..
Jenco, who was kidnaped nearly two months r,;o in
Beirut, said yesterday a handwritten letter aom the
priest has given the family hope he is -%ve.
"We feel it is in the best interests of Father Jenco
and the other parties involved not to disclose the
contents of the letter," said John Jenco, the priest's
brother.
He said the letter, two paragraphs long,. "has given
us, the fa,-niiy, a great deal of hope that he is alive." The
letter received Friday represented the first contact the
family has had'with Jenco since his abduction.
John Jenco said, "It is in his own writing and signed
by him.... the writing is his."
Jenco, 50, who was in charge of Catholic Relief
Services in Beirut when he was kidnaped Jan. 8, was the
fifth American to be kidnaped and held for a long
period of time in Lebanon. '
Last month, Jenco's family expressed hope the
priest's release was imminent, citing the release of
television journalist Jeremy Levin, 52, who had been
held 11 months in solitary confinement in eastern
Lebanon. .
Besides Jenco; -three other Americans are still miss-
ing . and -presumed- kidnaped in Lebanon. They are
William Buckley, a political officer at the U.S. Embassy;.
Rev. Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian minister, and Peter
Kilburn, a librarian at the American University of
. Beirut
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/31: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200123-5