Clergyman

I love movies.

God can get tiny if we're not careful.

Richard Rohr is a theologian that I read.

You are exactly what God had in mind when he made you.

The margins don't get erased by simply insisting that the powers-that-be erase them.

I've never met an evil person ever.

There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us.

The business of second chances is everybody's business.

Jesus did not only serve the needs of the people, but truly hoped that the people and Jesus would be one.

There is no such thing as a bad cop, only disturbing and dominant cop thinking that will invariably lead to excessive force and tragic outcomes.

The employer is not going to choose the gang member who's just been released from prison: they're going to choose the person with the skills.

In Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world, we have 1,100 gangs and 120,000 gang members so it is a daunting, complex social dilemma.

My church is in the detention facilities where I preside and celebrate the Eucharist. To me that's the church. That's the people of God.

I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine.

I spent the summers of 1984 and 1985 as an associate pastor at Dolores Mission Church, the poorest parish in the Los Angeles archdiocese. In 1986, I became pastor of the church.

Like the suffering child, gang members act out of their despair, and their actions are all the more alarming now for our not having heeded their cry long ago. The shortsighted neglect that keeps us locked up in our outrage has also kept us from viable solutions.

For over twenty years, Homeboy Industries has chosen to stand with those on the margins and those whose burdens are more than they can bear; it stands with the poor and the powerless, with the easily-despised and the readily-left out.

You prevent kids from joining gangs by offering after-school programs, sports, mentoring, and positive engagement with adults. You intervene with gang members by offering alternatives and employment to help redirect their lives. You deal with areas of high gang crime activity with real community policing. We know what works.

The church needs a pope who can call us to conversion and lead us to take seriously what Jesus did.

The draconian spirit that seeks to enhance penalties and to lower the age at which juveniles will be tries as adults, is part of the 'whole cloth' of three strikes. Our failure to address the depair of our inner-city youth is only delayed by our over-confidence in a stance that is 'tougher than thou.'