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Biden to award Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit priest for work with youth

May 3, 2024 Catholic News Agency 3
Father Greg Boyle gives an address at “We ♥ LA: An Urban Retreat for LA’s Passionate Leaders” in 2010. / Credit: durfeefoundation, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

The White House on Friday announced that Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside 18 other recipients this afternoon. 

Boyle, ordained a priest in 1984, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 while pastor of Dolores Mission, a Catholic church and school in an area that at one time had one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in Los Angeles. 

Today, Homeboy Industries claims to be the largest gang-intervention program in the United States.

The successful ministry, which now operates nationwide, offers training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail, as well as case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.

While the group has said it is “not affiliated with any particular religion,” it also notes that many of its works are “in line with the Jesuit practice of social justice,” and Boyle has said that the organization does not seek to “downplay” its Catholic identity.

Boyle described the ministry several years ago to CNA as “soaked with the Gospel.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, is presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors, the White House says.

In announcing this year’s recipients, the White House noted that the honorees “built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better.”

“They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service,” the announcement says. 

Biden, who is Catholic, announced that among the honorees is former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State John Kerry, both fellow Catholics known for their pro-abortion advocacy.

Other honorees this year include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Vice President Al Gore, Olympian Katie Ledecky, and actress Michelle Yeoh.

In 2020, Boyle was one of several hundred religious leaders who signed an endorsement of Biden’s campaign. The priest has called for the Church to “include with more compassion our LGBTQ sisters and brothers.”

In 2021, meanwhile, Homeboy Industries received $20 million in grants from prominent progressive backers Mackenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.

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UPDATE: Details emerge on Honduras prison fight that left more than 40 women inmates dead

June 28, 2023 Catholic News Agency 0
Members of the Military Police of Public Order (PMOP) take control of the Women’s Social Adaptation Center (CEFAS) prison in Tamara, 25 km north of Tegucigalpa, on June 26, 2023. The government announced last week that military police would assume control of Honduras’s 21 prisons for a period of one year starting July 1, as well as train 2,000 new prison guards after a vicious battle between rival gangs left at least 46 women dead in a prison near the capital Tegucigalpa. / Credit: Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Jun 28, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).

On June 20, a confrontation broke out between rival gangs at the Women’s Center for Social Readaptation (CEFAS) in Tamara, a town near Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, where dozens of inmates lost their lives.

The massacre was carried out by women belonging to the so-called “Barrio (neighborhood) 18” gang, who shot, stabbed, and set fire to the inmates of another criminal organization known as “Mara Salvatrucha.”

The Mexican newspaper El Universal explained the meaning behind the terms: “In Central America the word ‘mara’ is used colloquially for a gang; ‘salva’ refers to El Salvador; and ‘trucha’ (trout) is a slang term meaning ‘intelligent’ or ‘clever.’”

After what happened, the president of the country, Xiomara Castro, fired the minister of security, Ramón Sabillón, and assured that “drastic measures” will be taken.

The president tweeted she was “shocked by the monstrous murder of women in CEFAS, planned by gangs in full view and tolerance of security authorities. My solidarity with the relatives.”

The Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13) and Barrio 18 are widespread criminal organizations mainly in countries such as Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. Both gangs originated in Los Angeles.

Its members, often identified by full-body tattoos, commit crimes such as rape, drug trafficking, kidnapping, and murder.

The number of women who died is yet to be fully determined. 

In a June 20 statement, the public prosecutor’s office of Honduras said there were 41 dead. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras (OHCHR), there were 46. 

The bishop emeritus of San Pedro de Sula in Honduras, Ángel Garachana Pérez, spoke of even higher numbers than those confirmed by officials.

The Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa’s prison ministry demanded that the authorities clarify “this cruel event” and that “answers be provided for what happened.”

In addition, the bishop demanded that security be reinforced in prisons so that “it works effectively and in an appropriate manner.”

In a June 25 tweet, Pope Francis said: “I have been very saddened by what happened a few days ago in the women’s penitentiary center in Honduras. I pray for the deceased and their families. May the Virgin of Suyapa help hearts to open up to reconciliation and fraternity, even within prisons.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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