"The goal is healthy communities. If that's your goal, the violence will work itself out."
"You want to create communities of unconditional love."
"The thing with gang violence is to find the something else. It is almost always about a lethal absence of hope."
"Lack of peace means the absence of kinship."
"If you seek to build a sense of kinship in a community where there is no 'them' - there is just 'us.' Where you stand against forgetting we belong to each other. That things will work out. If the goals are tiny the outcome will be tiny."
"If you have kinship, you are going to have justice. If you have kinship, you are going to have peace."
Homeboy Industries Home Page
Learn more about Fr. Boyle's
ministry
Small Business Offers Alternatives to Gang Life
New York Times, March 20, 2008
Fresh
Bread, Fresh Start
Christian Science Monitor, Oct.
9, 2007
Welcome
Back, Homeboy
Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2007
Fresh Air
with Terry Gross
NPR, February, 2004
Finding God with the Poor, in Our Poverty: A talk by Greg Boyle
Creighton University, Feb., 2004
Jesuit
Greg Boyle, Gang Priest
St. Anthony Messenger, August 1999
HOMEBOY
Company Magazine, January, 1999
"Nothing
Stops a Bullet Like a Job"
The Guardian Unlimited, November, 1999
Finding Christ in the Suffering of our Cities
A talk given at Creighton University on
Tuesday, February 10th at 7:00 pm - St. John's Church.
Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., one of the most inspiring Jesuits in the country, spoke with us at Creighton to help us better understand what he discovers working with the gangs of East Los Angeles.
Watch the Video of the talk,
by clicking on the image to the left
(this version is in .wmv format for Windows).
Watch video on iPhone, iPod, iPad in MP4
format. Make desktop icon of link at left.
Listen to an audio of the talk, by clicking on the bar below.
Photos are courtesy of Fr. Don Doll, S.J.
Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J. is a nationally known Jesuit speaker. His life story is one of commitment. His stories about the youth he serves are full of reality, blessed with humor, and deeply moving. Across the country - from National Public Radio, the Today Show, or 60 Minutes, receiving many honorary degrees and awards - Fr. Boyle allows us to see into our cities by seeing the heart of Jesus, where Jesus is present and suffers. The men and women Fr. Boyle serves will stir our hearts as we get to know their struggles, their dignity and their faith.
We have chosen Fr. Boyle for this Creighton Jesuit lecture because the Society of Jesus has asked us to reflect upon people in the world through whom Christ is calling out to us most urgently. Jesus identifies himself with "the least" of his brothers and sisters.
Speaking of those stuck in entrenched poverty, the U.S. Provincials have said:
So limited are their opportunities, their poverty has become structurally entrenched. Their lives are severely diminished; their hopes are crushed by a persistent and oppressive poverty that denies to all but the boldest the basics of human dignity and the opportunity to live happy and fulfilled lives.
Speaking specifically about the poor of our inner cities the Jesuit Provincials said:
These groups represent all those whom poverty relegates to the very margins of society where their dignity is ignored, their rights are violated, their humanity is degraded, and their hopes are shattered. Solidarity with them is not a matter of politics. It is part of our solidarity with Christ and the expression of our love for God.
Book about Greg Boyle, S.J.
G-Dog and the Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles
By Celeste Fremon (Author), Tom Brokaw (Foreword)
from Amazon.com
Review
"[Celeste Fremon] offers [Father] Boyle as an example of how approaching gang violence with an eye towards prevention and intervention can be much more effective than simply aiming for 'lock-'em-up and-throw-away-the-key' suppression. Throughout she includes the words of the gang members themselves as they reflect on their lives and what would aid them in improving their circumstances. In this new edition, she adds an afterword that follows up on the fates of a number of the individuals discussed in the main body of the text." - streetgangs.com"