Hometown gives thanks for return of hostage Jim Loney, prays for Tom Fox KEITH LESLIE
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. (CP) - Signs welcoming James Loney home start well before the official limits of this city of 75,000, and continue right up to the door of his parents' home, where red ribbons are tied to just about every tree in the neighbourhood.
The sign-board outside Verne's Hardware on Great Northern Road sums up the sentiment expressed most often this weekend in the coffee shops and churches in the former hostage's hometown: "A Special Kind of Hero."
But people in this city on the Michigan border tempered their celebrations Sunday over Loney's freedom by taking time to remember Tom Fox, 54.
The American was taken hostage with Loney, 41, and two other peace activists in Iraq last November, and was the only one not to survive their four-month ordeal. Fox's bullet-riddled body was found March 10 on a Baghdad street.
"This is a special mass of thanksgiving, but it is also one of remembrance for Tom Fox, who in a sense was a martyr to the cause," said Msgr. Bernard Burns of Precious Blood Cathedral, where the Loney family worships every Sunday.
"We offer our prayers for him and his family."
Burns told the parishioners that Sunday's mass was celebrated with "extra joy" because of last Thursday's release of Loney and fellow hostages Harmeet Sooden, 33, formerly of Montreal, and Briton Norman Kember, 75, all members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams who had gone to Iraq to protest the American-led military invasion.
"We are so pleased and so happy for the Loney family, who have been freed from the terrible ordeal that they've been through for the last four months," he said.
"It's been four months to the day that James and his friends were captured and became hostages, and so today seems a good time for him to come home."
In his homily, Burns thanked God for "giving back to us a member of our community," which he said had brought a sense of relief to the city.
He called Loney a "disciple of peace," and repeatedly asked the media to give the freed hostage time to heal with his family without being hounded by cameras and microphones.
"I only hope that the press will give him some space because, with what they've been through . . . the family has to have some space, to have time to heal, to relax and reunite and love and cherish with the whole family gathered," he said.
"So they should not be bothered."
Burns acknowledged the media have a job to do - "they want to let the world know what's happening in our community" - but he cautioned journalists not to expect Loney to be very talkative, even when he is ready to face their questions.
"James is not the type of person who talks about what he does. James is the type of person who does what he does," Burns told the congregation.
"And because of that, I don't think he clearly relishes being in the spotlight. We pray that he will be given that time, given that space."
The four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams were captured on Nov. 26 in Baghdad, and the three survivors were freed last Thursday in a multi-national military operation.
Loney said "it was great to be alive" when he met briefly with reporters Sunday after his plane arrived in Toronto, but choked with emotion as he spoke about his slain American colleague.
"We are only three-quarters," Loney said about the four peace activists who had been abducted together. "Tom is not coming home with us. I am so sorry to have to lose him."
It was not clear when Loney would return to his parent's home in Sault Ste. Marie.
