AbbyMcGuire

There aren’t many occasions where former gang members would be invited to a school. But on Monday, Aug. 26 Fr. Greg Boyle and two homeboys, Memo and Jeffrey, came to Marian. During junior year, all theology classes read “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion” where Fr. Boyle shares details of his experience working with gang members in Los Angeles through Homeboy Industries.

It’s a moving read. Many of the people Fr. Boyle has worked with have passed away due to gang violence, meaning  he has had to bury more than 250 people since he started working at Dolores Mission Church in the late 1980s. Since Fr. Boyle  started working there as the pastor, he has created Homeboy Industries, which is a gang reentry and rehabilitation program. Homeboy helps gang members get jobs, an education and an avenue to a different life. 

“They say the sky’s the limit. I say you set the limit.”

Homeboy Memo

During their presentation, Memo and Jeffrey talked first about their lives and what Homeboy Industries has done to help them– like getting jobs and finding friends who want to uplift them, instead of tearing them down.They both have gone through immense challenges, like abuse and drug addiction. Memo advised Marian girls to “stay in school…save your money.” At 25, Memo had been in Homeboy for three years already.

Jeffrey told his plaid-skirted audience about his life before Homeboy, explaining how he grew up in an abusive household and was transferred into the foster care system in the fifth grade. To deal with the trauma of his life, he started boxing and participating in gang violence. After his brother passed away due to gang violence, he turned his life around and joined Homeboy.

He warns Marian girls against trying to be someone they aren’t: “…you don’t need a label, you don’t need a nickname…I realize that now…I wanna let y’all know that y’all lives matter, know that you’re worth it, y’all can do anything you choose to do when you put your mind to it…they say the sky’s the limit, I say you set the limit.”

Once Memo and Jeffrey had finished their presentations, and were interrupted by clapping and cheering, they introduced Fr. Greg Boyle. His Jesuit affiliation is obvious in his speech, urging students to “stand at the margins so that the margins get erased.” He reminded the congregation that especially as Marian girls, it is a responsibility to act as Jesus would and make the world a better place. 

After giving some advice, he moved on to telling stories about Homeboy and his methods for working with gang members. When he first started Homeboy, he realized that the kids in his neighborhood needed a school that wouldn’t expel them. So, he asked the local nuns to move out of their convent so that they could make a school there and they did.  

From there, Homeboy kept growing and creating new ways to deal with issues like drug abuse, mental health, family separation and violence. Now they are the largest gang reentry program on earth, emphasizing an anti-recidivism approach. Fr. Boyle and others at Homeboy focus on the importance of love and family to help gang members change for the better. 

Homeboy does not set a bar for gang members to live up to; instead, they show them a mirror of themselves and tell them how God made them in his perfect image. “Then they want to live up to what God made them to be,” Boyle said. It is important to Homeboy’s ministry to lift gang members up, not tear them down and punish them for their mistakes. Fr. Boyle believes that by helping gang members increase their self worth, they will want to make better choices for themselves because they know they deserve to have a good life. 

At the end of his speech, Fr. Boyle’s voice trembled as he addressed Mimo and Jeffrey. “You did this. You’ve never had a home in your life, now you’ve got one.” The crowd gave Boyle and the Homeboys a standing ovation after they were done, and Principal Susie Sullivan had to tell the girls multiple times to go back to home room instead of getting more pictures and autographs. 

It’s not uncommon for Marian girls to grumble and roll their eyes after CAB, annoyed that they weren’t able to do something more fun. But after this CAB, no one was rolling their eyes. Fr. Boyle and the Homeboys tugged at their heartstrings and told an inspiring story of perseverance and hope. And if Marian girls were polled, they would say that this was one of the best CABs they’ve ever had. 

Adviser note: Fr. Greg Boyle and two other “Homeboys” spoke at Creighton University after visiting Marian on Aug. 26. Here is a link to the story that The Catholic Voice wrote on that visit: https://catholicvoiceomaha.com/jesuit-priest-lets-gods-tenderness-flow-through-him-in-ministering-to-gang-members/