When Rev. James McLoughlin`s brothers and sisters saw a letter from the hostages flashed on the television screen over the weekend, they were not surprised that the handwriting was his.
”It was just like Jim to be the one to bring the people together, to calm them down and to mediate,” said Betsy McLoughlin, 30, of Deerfield, sister-in-law of the 45-year-old pastor of St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva.
”It was almost like Jim was trying to take action, to make something happen,” she said. ”Even if it didn`t do any good, at least he wouldn`t sit back and act like a victim. He tried to have some sort of (effect) on their fate.”
Father McLoughlin is one of two suburban priests who led a pilgrimage through the Holy Land before the group was hijacked aboard their homebound jet. The other priest, Rev. P. William McDonnell, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, Algonquin, was released Saturday by the hijackers.
Knowing the ways of Father Jim, as he is called by parishioners and family alike, McLoughlin said her brother-in-law was probably keeping the hostages` spirits up and tensions down.
”He`s one of the best priests I`ve ever known,” she said. ”He`s gentle. He`s strong. Every place he`s been a priest, his parishioners have adored him.”
Even as a boy growing up in Deerfield, Father McLoughlin wanted only to become a priest, she said. Last month he celebrated the 20th anniversary of his ordination. He has been pastor of St. Peter`s since November, 1983.
The trip to the Holy Land was Father McLoughlin`s first. As has been his practice on other trips since his father died five years ago, he took his mother, Loretta, 73, a Deerfield resident, along on the tour. She was among the first passengers released, her daughter-in-law said.
On Friday, shortly after the hijacking occurred, the McLoughlins received postcards from their mother and brother in Jerusalem. One depicted the Wailing Wall, a sacred Jewish site, and the other showed the Way of Tears, the path Christ followed to His crucifixion.
”That was really eerie to get those postcards which basically said,
`We`re having a wonderful time,` ” McLoughlin said.
For the McLoughlins, who spent the weekend vigil together over potluck impromptu meals served near radio and television sets, there have been few tears. ”That`s just the kind of family we are,” McLoughlin said. ”This is not a family that cries a lot.
”We`re waiting. We realize now it could be a long, long time. It`s kind of like a trench mentality. You`re in for the duration. You`d like it to be over, but I don`t think it`s going to happen.
”What`s keeping us from falling apart is that Mom has been released. There`s a little bit of hope. One of them is coming home. We`ve got to believe the other one is coming home.”
Grant Elliott
By all accounts, Grant Elliott found more than a new religion when he embraced the Catholic faith and was baptized during Easter of 1984 in a simple ceremony at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Algonquin.
Elliott, now 27, became more outgoing after his conversion, coworkers at Precision Twist Drill Co. in Crystal Lake said.
Within days of his baptism, Elliott approached Ralph Compton, grand knight of the Knights of Columbus, to inquire about becoming a member.
He worked the next year ”doing anything and everything,” Compton said, even regularly serving tables at the Knights` monthly pancake breakfast at nearby St. Thomas Catholic Church in Crystal Lake.
In April, Elliott, received his fourth degree in the Knights, the highest awarded.
Elliott grew up in Marengo, but has lived in Algonquin for the last 2 1/2 years. In the last year, he became an active member of a young singles group at St. Thomas.
Elliott had long contemplated a trip to the Holy Land.
”He`d always wanted to go, said Shirley Elliott, his mother. ”I thought it was the chance of a lifetime for him. We were very happy.”
While four days of fearful uncertainty have passed since Mrs. Elliott first heard word of the hijacking on the radio, his family has no regrets about his conversion to Catholicism or the trip that landed him in the hands of terrorists.
”He just always wanted to be a Catholic and finally did it,” said Mrs. Elliott. ”He loves the religion. He visited various churches and decided that was the religion for him. I was very pleased.
”I think he has gained so much on the trip by just being at the Holy Land,” said Mrs. Elliott as the family continued a vigil, glued to the television and telephone of their Marengo home. ”He`s where he wanted to be,” she said.
For the Elliott family, however, the ordeal ”has been an absolute nightmare,” Mrs. Elliott said. ”I have never felt so helpless in my life.” Fellow workers at Precision Twist Drill Co., where Elliott has been employed as an order filler since shortly after he graduated from high school, praised him as a worker.
”He`s a good worker, dependable,” said Eldon Conley, his boss at the company.
”He`s the kind of guy who`s dedicated to the extent where when we had a bad snowstorm, he`d spend the night right here to be sure he`d be here for work.”
Conley said he has confidence that Elliott will come out of the hijacking in good shape.
”If he`s still got the stamina he`s shown me, he`ll do all right,”
Conley said. ”But I`m sure he`s scared. We`re kind of shocked around here. There`s a lot of hope. But I know I`m angry, too.”
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Rev. Thomas Dempsey
Parishioners of St. Patrick Catholic Church in St. Charles recall that their pastor, Rev. Thomas Dempsey, 49, had talked for years about someday touring the Holy Land.
And this year, at almost the last minute, the clergyman signed up for such a pilgrimage at the urging of two fellow priests who were to lead the tour.
Now Father Dempsey is a hostage of Shiite Moslem terrorists who hijacked a Trans World Airlines jet on the homebound leg of a two-week trip to the Middle East.
One of the priests leading the tour, Rev. James McLoughlin, 45, also is being held hostage. The other priest, Rev. P. William McDonnell, has been released.
Father Dempsey, a native of the Southwest Side and a priest for 24 years, has been pastor of St. Patrick`s for the last 7 years. He saw the trip as a much-needed rest from the pressures of running a burgeoning parish and an 850- student parish elementary school, said Marion Kavanaugh, the church`s secretary.
Among parishioners Father Dempsey is known for both his gentle counsel and his athletic prowess. He jogs six miles a day and can often be found alone reading scripture in one of the church`s front pews, Kavanaugh said.
As the 1,200 families of his parish await word of his fate, they have transformed the church grounds into a virtual forest of yellow ribbons.
Ribbons have been tied around oak trees in a park across from the rectory, on the door handles of the church and ”just about everywhere you look,” Kavanaugh said.
Parishioners, many of whom have been praying at the church since the hijacking Friday, tried Monday to go about ”business as usual.” A funeral mass was said at 10:30 a.m., and over the weekend there were two weddings and a full schedule of masses.
What keeps the parish going without any word of their pastor`s whereabouts or condition?
”Hope,” Kavanaugh said. ”We know he`s coming home. You don`t think it, you know it.”
Kurt L. Carlson
When Kurt L. Carlson, a Rockford businessman, departed on what he thought was to be a brief trip to the Middle East, he left behind not only a successful roofing company, but an infant first child born after 17 years of marriage.
The child, Meredeth, was born to Carlson, 38, and his wife, Cheri, 35, four and a half months ago.
But instead of coming home on schedule to his wife and daughter, Carlson became one of the victims when the plane on which he was traveling was hijacked by terrorists.
Carlson is the president of Carlson Roofing Systems, a family firm in Love`s Park. He was described as active in civic affairs, serving on the board of the Rockford Boys` Club and sponsoring several Little League baseball teams.
The Carlsons live in an imposing ivy-covered stone house on grounds about 100 yards from the Rock River in Rockford. A black wrought-iron gate closes off a circular drive leading up to main entrance.
In recent days clergymen from more than a half dozen churches have gone in and out of the house offering comfort to his wife, who has remained in seclusion with her daughter.
Local ministers said they are preparing for a day of fasting and prayer as a result of the hijacking, but a date has not yet been set.
Carlson is the oldest in a family of six children–four boys and two girls. One of his younger brothers, Bun E., is a drummer with Cheap Trick, a rock band. Their mother, Via, is an organist at the Salvation Army Temple in Rockford.
When Carlson`s name did not appear on the letter the hijack hostages sent to President Reagan, his family at first feared he may have been the American killed by the hijackers, his mother said.
”I thought he was dead,” Mrs. Carlson said. ”I thought he was the one who was shot.”
But Mrs. Carlson now believes her son refused to sign the letter.
”He`s a strong man,” she said. ”Maybe he didn`t believe in it and wouldn`t sign it.
”All of us have to put our faith and trust in God,” she said. ”We`re looking forward to all of them (the hostages) coming home. We didn`t get any sleep for two nights before we turned this over to the Lord. But last night I slept.
”We don`t hold any hate. We deplore any acts of violence, but we are commanded by our Bible to forgive,” she said.
Raymond Johnson
Raymond Johnson, 62, a retired truck driver and church deacon from Aurora, was returning from his second trip to the Holy Land when he found himself a captive.
His family hopes that he will be able to maintain his composure during the ordeal by reciting the rosary, regardless of whether his captors allow him to finger the beads he always keeps tucked in a pocket.
”Silently or praying out loud with the rest of the group, I know it`s the rosary that`s getting him through these hours,” said Kathleen Flanagan, 38, of Chicago, the eldest of Johnson`s six children.
Johnson`s wife, Margaret, 60, was released in Algiers Saturday and now waits for him in a Paris hotel.
”He`s very calm under pressure, but he`s always been very strong and very independent, so I`m sure the helplessness is the hardest thing for him,” said Flanagan, director of creative services for the First National Bank of Chicago.
”That`s what weighs so heavy on us, thinking of my big strong father sitting there helpless,” said Flanagan, speaking from her Rogers Park home on the fourth day of what she calls her ”nightmare” vigil. ”My mom was reassured, though, by the last passengers off the plane that he was being compliant.”
Flanagan, who grew up in Aurora with her parents, three sisters and two brothers, sat within arm`s reach of the telephone, the radio and the television Monday, awaiting word of her father`s fate.
”It`s really a sick existence to sit here and listen all day long,” she said of her vigil. ”You have this illusion that at any minute something will happen, and it never happens.
”You`re afraid to leave the radio for even a minute, but there`s never even a word. I jump every time the phone rings. Saturday night was the worst. We`d wake up every hour to hear the news not knowing whether we`d hear that they blew the plane up.”
Late Sunday, Flanagan spoke via long-distance telephone with her mother who is staying in the Concorde-La Fayette Hotel in Paris. ”She sounds very calm and very reassured,” Flanagan said. ”She doesn`t want to talk about it (the hijacking). I`m sure that`s to keep her composure. She just kept saying the trip was wonderful, that they had a wonderful, wonderful time together.”
The Johnsons had looked forward to returning to the Holy Land after he retired from almost 25 years driving trucks across the country for Sunbeam Corp.
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”Eight years ago they went there, and ever since that`s been my father`s goal,” Flanagan said. ”As soon as he retired he wanted to go back. Last year he was laid off from Sunbeam, so they decided to go now. They were supposed to be home for my brother`s wedding July 6.”
Flanagan`s voice cracked. Her father, who had served in World War II as a Navy baker, hauled truckloads of appliances for 24 1/2 years and reared six children, was a long way from Annunciation Catholic Church in Marywood, a small town outside Aurora, where her brother is to be married.