wfn.org | Episcopalians: Retired priest rescued, raises grandsons

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

March 21, 2002

2002-071

Episcopalians: Retired priest rescued, raises grandsons

by David Howell

(ENS) The Rev. Henry Pease, a retired Episcopal priest of the 
Diocese of Bethlehem in charge of a small parish near 
Wilkes-Barre and a part-time economics teacher at King's 
College, is raising three young grandsons at his Saddle Lake 
home near Tunkhannock in northeastern Pennsylvania. 

Though he considers raising grandchildren to be an ordinary 
lifestyle today, how he rescued the children from South America 
is anything but ordinary. It involves a murder and a kidnapping 
that would not be out of place in a Hollywood thriller. 

The former rector of St. Paul's Church in Montrose (1972-98), 
now serving St. George's Church, Nanticoke, a parish of some 25 
to 30 Sunday worshippers, prefers to focus on the happy ending 
of the story and how Francisco, 10, Dominic, 5, and Simon, 4, 
have changed his life. 

"In some ways it [raising his second set of children] is a lot 
easier," he said. "I know a lot more than I did 40 years ago and 
I'm not involved in day-to-day work, so I have more time. I plan 
my days on the basis of the kids' needs." 

Pease is one of many householders raising grandchildren. He said 
two other families on his short street do so. According to 
census figures, 2.35 million grandparents in the United States 
are raising at least one grandchild.

He noted that grandparents are healthier and stronger today, 
though he admits to being tired by the close of an average day. 
Because families have become less stable, grandparents have to 
step in more often. 

The volatility of society is one of the biggest changes for 
Pease in his second round of parenting. "In the sixties life was 
simpler. There was an atmosphere of greater safety. You can't 
just put kids on the bus anymore and have them go somewhere on 
their own."

Children in danger

Francisco, Dominic and Simon are sons of Pease's son, John, a 
pediatric nurse who dreamed of starting a fish hatchery in 
Ecuador. His Ecuadorian wife, Loli, whom John had met while he 
worked with the Peace Corps, traveled from North Carolina to 
Ecuador with the two youngest boys in 1998.

 

Pease offered to take Francisco then because they all thought 
the oldest child would be better off with him and going to 
school in Pennsylvania. The boy lived with Pease until February 
2000 when he went with his father to join the rest of the family 
in Ecuador. 

John spent almost a year trying to track down his household 
goods, a small truck, a power shovel and shrimp hatchery-related 
items he had shipped to Ecuador that somehow wound up in 
Colombia.

While in Colombia, John received news that Loli had been killed. 

Back in the U.S., in October 2000, Pease received email from 
Quito, Ecuador, saying he should come to get his grandchildren. 
He also received a phone call telling him the children had 
witnessed their mother's murder. They, too, were in danger. 

'Man of gold'

Pease went first to Quito, then to the island of Muisne where 
the boys had been. There he discovered that relatives of the 
children's mother wanted money for their safe return. One of the 
children later told him that the family's name for Pease 
translated into English as "man of gold."

John and Pease then went to Esmeraldas, a rough Ecuadorian 
coastal city with a history of hundreds of years of smuggling. 
Those who held the boys would not release them. The Peases were 
harassed for hours by an angry mob that did not like Americans. 
They left without being harmed, even though the police refused 
to disburse the mob.

Lawyers representing the Peases and the dead mother's relatives 
negotiated for days, "primarily about money in exchange for the 
children," according to Pease. After the Peases' attorney 
threatened to bring charges of kidnapping, arrangements were 
made to have the children put on a bus at 2 a.m., to be met by 
the Peases at a shopping center in Quito. 

Having met the children in Quito, the Peases still feared they 
might be followed. Their cab driver took them to the Embassy 
Hotel on the opposite side of town rather than to the American 
Embassy. 

They reached the American Embassy an hour later than expected. 
Though more than a hundred people were waiting in line there, 
the American Marines saw the three small boys and let all of 
them in right away.

The next day they left the country, still receiving demands for 
money and still worried about their safety.

The children explained to Pease as best as they could what had 
happened to them. Though they are now fluent, the younger two 
could not speak English at that time. Pease learned the broad 
lines of their story over time. He continues to this day to 
learn new details. 

Confidence in God

Pease has chosen not to pursue further investigations in 
Ecuador. The most important reality to him today is that the 
children are safe.

Francisco is receiving counseling. All three seem to be 
recovering from their experience. 

Their father, John, may have been the most deeply affected. He 
is leaving the care of the children to his father while 
attempting to build a new life for himself in Spain. Pease is 
making arrangements to adopt the children.

Pease was confident that God was with him in Ecuador, that 
things would work out. "I knew I would be able to take care of 
them."

"I am in better health now than when I first started to take 
care of the boys. God has been working through me so that I can 
do what I have to do. That has been a source of great joy."

Francisco is in fourth grade. Dominic is in kindergarten. Simon 
moves between a child care center and Head Start.

A full retirement

Ordained a priest in 1966, Pease served as an assistant at St. 
Stephen's Church, Wilkes-Barre, for six year before being called 
to be rector in Montrose in 1972. Prior to seminary and 
ordination, he worked at Dun and Bradstreet (Richmond District) 
and as a Bank Examiner for the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia. 

Today he serves the Diocese of Bethlehem as president of the 
Standing Committee and as chair of the Personnel Committee. For 
the past 17 years he has served as an Education for Ministry 
mentor in Montrose and Scranton. He has been chair of the 
diocesan Program and Budget Committee, the Grant-in-Aid 
Committee (now Congregational Development), and the United 
Budget Task Force, and vice-chair of Diocesan Council. In the 
community he serves as board chair of the Tre-Hab Center 
Community Action Agency, the Susquehanna/Wyoming Unit of the 
American Cancer Society, and the Susquehanna County Chapter of 
the American Red Cross.

------

--A parishioner at Trinity Church, Bethlehem, Dave Howell is a 
frequent contributor to Diocesan Life, the newspaper of the 
Diocese of Bethlehem. The Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis, 
communication minister of the Diocese of Bethlehem and editor of 
Diocesan Life, contributed to this story.