Phone
call home
from Marquette Magazine
Marquette University has always been
a friend to me. The kind who challenges you to do more and be better and
ultimately shapes who you become.
With Marquette, I went on some
volunteer trips to South Dakota and Mississippi and learned I was a sheltered
kid and the world had real problems. I came to know young people who wanted to
give their hearts for others. Later I volunteered in a Milwaukee junior high
school up the street from the university and was inspired to become an
inner-city teacher. But Marquette was perhaps never a bigger friend to me than
when I was imprisoned as a journalist.
Myself and two colleagues had been
captured and were being held in a military detention center in Tripoli. Each
day brought increasing worry that our moms would begin to panic. My colleague,
Clare, was supposed to call her mom on her birthday, which was the day after we
were captured. I had still not fully admitted to myself that my mom knew what
had happened. But I kept telling Clare my mom had a strong faith.
I prayed she’d know I was OK. I
prayed I could communicate through some cosmic reach of the universe to her.
I began to pray the rosary. It was
what my mother and grandmother would have prayed.
I said 10 Hail Marys between each Our Father. It took a long
time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Marys off on my knuckles. And it helped
to keep my mind focused.
Clare and I prayed together out
loud. It felt energizing to speak our weaknesses and hopes together, as if in a
conversation with God, rather than silently and alone.
Later we were taken to another
prison where the regime kept hundreds of political prisoners. I was quickly
welcomed by the other prisoners and treated well.
One night, 18 days into our
captivity, some guards brought me out of the cell. In the hall I saw Manu,
another colleague, for the first time in a week. We were haggard but overjoyed
to see each other. Upstairs in the warden’s office, a distinguished man in a
suit stood and said, “We felt you might want to call your families.”
I said a final prayer and dialed the
number. My mom answered the phone. “Mom, Mom, it’s me, Jim.”
“Jimmy, where are you?”
“I’m still in Libya, Mom. I’m sorry
about this. So sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Jim,” she pleaded.
“Oh, Daddy just left. Oh … He so wants to talk to you. How are you, Jim?” I
told her I was being fed, that I was getting the best bed and being treated
like a guest.
“Are they making you say these
things, Jim?”
“No, the Libyans are beautiful
people,” I told her. “I’ve been praying for you to know that I’m OK,” I said.
“Haven’t you felt my prayers?”
“Oh, Jimmy, so many people are
praying for you. All your friends, Donnie, Michael Joyce, Dan Hanrahan, Suree,
Tom Durkin, Sarah Fang have been calling. Your brother Michael loves you so
much.” She started to cry. “The Turkish embassy is trying to see you and also
Human Rights Watch. Did you see them?” I said I hadn’t.
“They’re having a prayer vigil for
you at Marquette. Don’t you feel our prayers?” she asked.
“I do, Mom, I feel them,” and I
thought about this for a second. Maybe it was others’ prayers strengthening me,
keeping me afloat.
The official made a motion. I
started to say goodbye. Mom started to cry. “Mom, I’m strong. I’m OK. I should
be home by Katie’s graduation,” which was a month away.
“We love you, Jim!” she said. Then I
hung up.
I replayed that call hundreds of
times in my head — my mother’s voice, the names of my friends, her knowledge of
our situation, her absolute belief in the power of prayer. She told me my
friends had gathered to do anything they could to help. I knew I wasn’t alone.
My last night in Tripoli, I had my
first Internet connection in 44 days and was able to listen to a speech Tom
Durkin gave for me at the Marquette vigil. To a church full of friends, alums,
priests, students and faculty, I watched the best speech a brother could give
for another. It felt like a best man speech and a eulogy in one. It showed
tremendous heart and was just a glimpse of the efforts and prayers people were
pouring forth. If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom, an
inner freedom first and later the miracle of being released during a war in
which the regime had no real incentive to free us. It didn’t make sense, but
faith did.
