Vigil for the Homeless. Reminder from Claude Mostowik MSC
Greg Boyle SJ
Claude Mostowik, MSC Justice and Peace Director has a notice for the homeless who have died and the visit of Fr Greg Boyle SJ. Greg Boyle has had a striking ministry – some details below.
There will be a vigil at Martin Place on Friday 21, 2024 for homeless people who have died in the last year. An Australian Tour by Father Greg Boyle, sj. He is founder of Homeboy Industries and author of Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness and Barking to the Choir.
Gregory Joseph Boyle, S.J. (born May 19, 1954) is an American Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. He is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program, and former pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles. He entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). Boyle was ordained a priest in 1984.
At the conclusion of his theology studies, Boyle spent a year living and working with Christian base communities in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Upon his return in 1986, he was appointed pastor of Dolores Mission Church, a Jesuit parish in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles that was then the poorest Catholic church in the city. At the time, the church sat between two large public housing projects and amid the territories of eight gangs. Referred to as the "decade of death" in Los Angeles between 1988-1998, there were close to a thousand people per year killed in Los Angeles from gang related crime.
By 1988, in an effort to address the escalating problems and unmet needs of gang-involved youth, Boyle, alongside parish and community members, began to develop positive opportunities for them, including establishing an alternative school and a day care program, and seeking out legitimate employment, calling this initial effort Jobs for a Future.
Homeboy Industries is the largest and most successful gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. Homeboy offers an "exit ramp" for those stuck in a cycle of violence and incarceration. The organization's holistic approach, with free services and programs, supports around 10,000 men and women a year as they work to overcome their pasts, re-imagine their futures, and break the inter-generational cycles of gang violence. Therapeutic and educational offerings (e.g., case management, counseling, and classes), practical services (e.g., tattoo removal, work readiness, and legal assistance), and job training-focused business (e.g., Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Café, and Homeboy Silkscreen & Embroidery) provide healing alternatives to gang life while creating safer and healthier communities.
Los Angeles (May 4, 2024) – Homeboy Industries is proud to announce that its Founder, Father Gregory Boyle, S.J., received The Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. in a White House ceremony that took place on Friday, May 3rd. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the United States’ highest civilian honor.
“This recognition is heartening because it honors the many thousands of men and women who have walked through our doors at Homeboy Industries since 1988,” said Father Gregory Boyle, S.J., Founder of Homeboy Industries. Adding that, “It acknowledges their dignity and nobility and the courage of their tenderness. It underscores for us all, the invitation to no longer punish wound, but seek its healing. It recognizes the need to invest in people and to create together a community of cherished belonging.”
