Father Greg Boyle Brings Message of Compassion and Kinship to Fort Wayne

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Father Greg Boyle, a best-selling author and founder of Homeboy Industries, will share his message of “The Power of Boundless Compassion” with area residents on October 8, 2021.

Sponsored by the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation and the University of Saint Francis, the presentation will begin at 1 p.m. in the USF Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center, 431 W. Berry St. Tickets are free, but registration is required by visiting: www.SJCHF.org/Boyle.

“We are so excited to bring Father Greg to Fort Wayne,” says Meg Distler, executive director of the St. Joe Foundation. “We hope local residents are inspired by his example so they can put God’s compassion to work in Fort Wayne.”

“Father Greg Boyle demonstrates what it means to serve God through service to others. We are grateful for the opportunity to host his appearance and look forward to his uplifting message,” USF President Rev. Dr. Eric Albert Zimmer said.

Father Boyle is a Jesuit priest and founder of Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. He witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community during the so-called “decade of death” that began in the late 1980s and peaked at 1,000 gang-related killings in 1992.

In the face of criminal justice policies of mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, he and his parish and community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings. In 1988 they started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries, which employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to the more than 8,000 men and women who walk through its doors every year.

Father Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion and the 2017 Los Angeles Times bestseller Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship.

The St. Joe Foundation and University of Saint Francis are bringing Father Boyle to Fort Wayne as part of the Foundation’s work to carry on the mission of its sponsor, the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ is a religious order Catholic sisters who respect and value each person while serving the poor and powerless.

For more information, contact Mary Tyndall, St. Joe Foundation, at MTyndall@sjchf.org or (260) 969-2001 ext. 205 or Reggie Hayes, USF, at rhayes@sf.edu or 260-399-7700, ext. 6413.

Founded in 1890 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, the University of Saint Francis offers more than 60 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs through the College of Health Sciences, College of Arts, Sciences, and Business and College of Adult and Distance Education. In addition to its traditional programs, USF designs focused curricula for working adults in Fort Wayne, Crown Point and online. USF Downtown houses the university’s business and music technology programs while offering enhanced internship and networking opportunities for students. The University of Saint Francis campus experience includes 18 athletic programs boasting two individual and four team NAIA national championships and is recognized as an NAIA Five-Star Champion of Character institution. Approximately 2,200 students from a broad geographic region attend USF.