Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., to Give Talk at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., will give a talk on ministering to gang members on April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. Fr. Boyle has spent much of his life determined to help end gang violence and raise awareness about the causes of gang violence in the U.S.

Fr. Boyle is founder and executive director of Jobs for a Future/Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles gang-prevention program. Founded in 1988 for at-risk and gang-involved youth, Jobs For a Future is a nationally-recognized center that assists previously gang-involved youth in re-directing their lives.

From 1986 to 1992 Fr. Boyle was a pastor of Dolores Mission, the poorest church in the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese. The parish is home of the largest public housing developments west of the Mississippi and the highest concentration of gang activity in the city of Los Angeles.

Fr. Boyle, who received an honorary doctorate from Holy Cross in 1998, is also the subject of the book G-Dog and the Homeboys by Celeste Fremon (University of New Mexico Press, 2004), which tells the story of his successes with his unconventional ministry.

The talk is part of the Lilly Vocation Discernment Initiative’s Lectures in Ministry Series, in which church leaders and ministers in a variety of ministries speak about their own vocations and the challenges they see the church needing to focus on in the 21st century.

The lecture is sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.