Greg Boyle is one of the most popular and richest Priest who was born on May 19, 1954 in Los Angeles, United States. Gregory Joseph Boyle, S.J., (born May 19 1954) is an American Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. Boyle is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. He was also the was the former pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles.
Following the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Jobs for a Future and Proyecto Pastoral, a community-organizing project that began at the church, launched their first social enterprise, Homeboy Bakery. Over the next few years the success of the bakery set the foundation for further social enterprise companies, which eventually led Jobs for a Future to become an independent non-profit organizationcalled Homeboy Industries.
In 2010, Boyle’s Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, a book recollecting his 20+ years in the barrio, was published. It received positive reviews from many. In 2017 he published a similar volume Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship (Simon and Schuster).
Boyle was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in December 2011.
In 1988, in attempt to tackle the growing problems and in the face of the unmet needs of youth involved in gangs, Boyle and parish and community members started to build positive options for them, such as creating an alternative school and day care programs, and looking for legitimate work and calling the initial initiative Jobs for a Future.
