By Lindsey Townsend

Finding the Sacred in LA's Mean Streets

EAST LOS ANGELES, CA—He's buried 117 young men and women, caught up in the chaos of violence and gang wars. He's become the surrogate parent to hundreds of Hispanic youth whose parents are neglectful, abusive, or battling alcohol and drug addictions. And he's created life-changing opportunities for these forgotten children to redirect their lives. "I just try to work as Jesus did—giving hope to those who need it most," the soft-spoken, grayhaired priest says.

Father Gregory Boyle, S.J. is a Jesuit priest who is Director of Jobs For a Future and Homeboy Industries, an employment referral center for at-risk-youth and economic development program in East Los Angeles.

Born in Los Angeles one of eight children in an Irish-American family, he was ordained as Jesuit priest in 1984 after realizing that working with the poor and the forgotten was his true calling. After obtaining an M. Div. from the Weston School of Theology, and an STM degree from the Jesuit School of Theology, he worked with Christian Base Communities in Cochabanba, Bolivia. He also served as Chaplain of the Islas Marias Penal Colony in Mexico and of Folsom Prison.

In 1986, Father Greg become pastor of Dolores Mission Church, the poorest church in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The surrounding neighborhood has been described as a place where the "families of rival gangs pray and seek solace together even as their children kill each other in the streets."

Two years later, determined to create employment opportunities for ex-gang members, Father Greg founded Jobs for a Future in Boyle Heights. The neighborhood is home to the Pico/Aliso Housing developments, the largest public housing developments west of the Mississippi River.

Its only claim to fame: the highest concentration of gang violence in the city of Los Angeles. Within 16 square miles, 50 gangs claim 10,000 members, Hispanic and black. This is a bleak world of unemployment, overpopulation, broken families, drugs, crime, and violence. A place where everyone has a gun, and everyone uses it. Where the welcoming arms of street gangs can create an almost irresistible lure for abandoned kids running wild and looking for somewhere to belong.

"I've buried a lot of kids I love who were killed by kids I loved," Father Greg says quietly. "That's always hard to do. But I take what Jesus said seriously, which is that we should stand with those on the margins, with those whose dignity has been denied, and with those whose burdens are more than they can bear."

Jobs for a Future began its economic development branch, Homeboy Industries, in 1992. Currently it has six businesses: Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy Merchandising, Homeboy Landscaping, and Homeboy Graffiti Removal. More than 1000 "homies" pour through its door every month. Now former gang enemies, once at war, work side by side to bake bread, print designs on a variety of apparel, sell gear featuring the Homeboy logo, and provide cleaning services for movie locations.

Most with stories such as Leo Galvin, 18, who now works in Father Greg's office as a file clerk. Leo was serving time in prison for grand theft auto when he first encountered the compassionate father. "My dad and I were always arguing, and things were bad at home. I'd go out with my friends and steal cars for fun to forget about my problems—but I got caught," he says.

While in prison, he says, "I had a lot of time to think." Now he is off the streets, working a steady job, and planning to go back to school for a high school diploma. "If it wasn't for Father G, I'd still stealing cars" he says. "But he believes in me."

Father Greg has been criticized by some for administering Catholic last rites to slain gang members. But he maintains that the deceased's family and friends deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and to receive whatever comfort he can provide.

He also points out that such events provide an opportunity to bring his message of hope to other children who still have a chance to make better choices. "What I try to do is hold up the mirror to these kids and show them that they really have been created in God's image. As soon as they understand that they are exactly what God had in mind when he made them, then they begin to become that reality. And then their life begins to change," he says.


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