Father Greg Boyle Brings Kinship to LMU

father greg boyle lane bove lmu 620x411 - Father Greg Boyle Brings Kinship to LMU

Faith, compassion and the enduring power of kinship were the focus of Homeboy Industries founder Father Greg Boyle’s February 13 visit to Loyola Marymount University.

Father Boyle M.A. ’85 returned to the bluff to spend “A Day of Kinship” with students, faculty and staff from across campus. The day culminated with an inspiring keynote to a full house at the Burns Recreation Center.  The event was co-sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts.

In his speech, Boyle shared anecdotes of the former gang members he’s worked with since founding Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. He also dispensed advice on how to create a more compassionate world.

LMU has never been the place you came to. It’s always been the place you go from. And you go from to imagine with god a circle of compassion. And then you imagine nobody standing outside that circle. You go from here to dismantle the barriers that exclude. You create a community of kinship such that god may recognize it.”

Dr. Lane Bove, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs, expressed that the timing of Father Boyle’s visit to campus couldn’t have been better.

“It’s so important for our students to hear Father Boyle’s words of kinship and love so they can try to make sense of 2018,” Bove said.

She added that one of her favorite lines from Boyle’s new book Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship is, “Judgement after all takes up the room you need for loving.”

Boyle, who earned his master’s degree in English from LMU, is also the author of the New York Times Best Seller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.

Watch Father Greg’s Keynote Address

Pictured at top: Dr. Robbin Crabtree, dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts; Fr. Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries; Hayden Tanabe, ASLMU President; Dr. Lane Bove, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs