Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 23. No. 25
Thursday, July 4, 1985
$10.00 Per Year
War-Torn Lebanon
Defies Solution
BY MSGR. NOEL C.
BURTENSHAW
Jimmy Palmer was the
first hostage to be released.
His captors let him go on
humanitarian grounds; he
has a heart condition. As he
returned alone to Germany
and then to his home in
Arkansas, he was asked
what is going on in that
Middle East nation we
know as Lebanon. He simp
ly responded in frustration,
“I really don’t know.”
It was a brief answer and
not very informative, but it
is an answer that many
native Lebanese would also
give. We had the opportuni
ty to confront three men
who are natives of Lebanon
last week and they are
totally frustrated as they
try to explain the chaotic
condition, of that tiny
coastal Mideastern nation
that wps, just a short few
years ago, the playground
of the millionaires and the
jewel of commerce for that
area.
“Now,” said William
Fakhoury who, along with
his father, Wadith Fak
houry, is visiting Atlanta,
“it is in chaos and many of
the cities are in rubble. It is
a very sad turn of events.”
The Fakhourys were
visiting Monsignor William
Haddad, Melkite pastor of
St. John’s parish in Atlan
ta. Monsignor Haddad, who
was born in Lebanon, is a
relative of the Fakhourys.
The Fakhourys are
natives of Sidon which is a
city about 45 miles south of
Beirut. They have been
merchants in that seaside
city for 50 years.
“It was a wonderful
place to live,” says the
handsome young William,
who is a business ex
ecutive. “But in a matter of
just a few years everything
273 PRAYERS — Wearing
shirts that say “Set the Captives
Free,” Susan Franceschini, left,
and Mae Mihelich, sisters of Ser-
vite Father Lawrence Jenco, the
priest from Joliet III., who was
kidnapped in Beirut Jan. 8, share
a tearful moment during an April
Mass as students from St. Mary
Immaculate School in Plainfield,
III., present the women with 273
promises of prayers for the kid
napped priest. (NC photo by Pat
Morrison)
has gone. When the Israelis
invaded and the bombing
began, my family had to go
to the mountains and leave
everything. Now we are
back, but things are very
different.”
The difference is that the
Shiite Moslems are armed
and no one knows just who
is in charge or where the
(Continued on Page 7)
One Family
Still Waits
BY GRETCHEN
REISER
A moment of joy and
gratitude for most
Americans was a time of
agonizing disappointment
for the families of the
“forgotten seven” — seven
Americans who have been
held for months and still
are kidnap victims in
Beirut, Lebanon.
“We are disappointed,
although we have not given
up hope yet. We do not feel
that our government has
failed us yet,” said Andrew
Mihelich, nephew of one of
the seven, in a telephone in
terview June 30 from
Joliet, Illinois. Moments
earlier, the 39 TWA
hostages had reached Syria
safely. His voice tight with
emotion, Mihelich, whose
uncle is Servite Father
Lawrence Martin Jenco,
said that the family had
received no notice Sunday
(Continued on Page 7)
Sister Marcella Marshals Help For The Easters
BY RITA McINERNEY
When you get to Fairburn you take W. Broad Street
to Cemetery road. Once through the graveyard the
road winds around to a short dead-end lane. Tom and
Lizzie Easter’s ramshackle cottage is on the left,
down a slight incline behind the small vegetable
garden. The smell from the pigsty right below their
privy is pungent.
The Easters are old and frail with no living children
or any relatives who care about them. Lizzie will be
70 on Aug. 25 and Tom is 87. Married for 40 years,
they have lived the last 17 on this small plot, their old
house surrounded by dilapidated sheds, discarded
tables and bureaus, a decrepit sofa and rusting
chairs.
When Sister Marcella Meyer and Sister Roberta
Joseph Sutton of Catholic Social Services arrive on
this humid day in late June, Tom, tall and skinny,
wearing a Turtles T-shirt, shuffles out of the house
and greets them cheerfully. Lizzie, he says, has gone
to the laundry in town with Viola Cotton, community
worker with the Fulton County Department of Fami
ly and Childrens’ Services. The women are soon
back.
Inside the house, Winston Leverett, permanent
deacon at St. Paul of the Cross Church in Atlanta, and
his right hand man, Charlm Mosley, are putting down
linoleum squares in the living room which holds “Mr.
Tom’s” single bed. Earlier, they had to tear out the
rotten floor boards and put down a new wooden floor.
They’ve put new ceiling boards in both living room
and kitchen and new cabinets in Lizzie’s kitchen. The
(Continued on Page 6)
TWO FRIENDS MEET — Lizzie Easter greets her friend, Sister Marcella Meyer.
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