JAAZ will host a presentation by

Father Greg Boyle, SJ

on Saturday March 13th, 2010 at Shadow Rock UCC 12861 N. 8th Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85029. Click here for directions.

Adults $10. Students free

Since 1986, when he was assigned by his Jesuit order to Dolores Mission in East Los Angeles, Father Greg Boyle has been working to address the escalating problems and unmet needs of gang-involved youth in Southern California. He can and does tell gripping stories of his work with Chicanos and Chicanas, and the changes that he and an army of volunteers have made in the lives of thousands, inspiring them to leave their dangerous and destructive lives on the streets. In a recent interview in a Los Angeles tabloid, Father Boyle speaks very plainly: I defy anyone to spend 15 minutes with any gang member and say that's not an interesting human being with a heart and soul and goodness, whose damage and obstacles have been tough. I'm not interested in turning a gang into the Kiwanis club. It's moral acrobatics. I've buried 116 human beings. I'm not in a position to say a gang can be transformed. It can't be. A human being is a whole lot better than the worse thing he's ever done, however. I couldn't count the number of human beings who have turned their lives around and have become exactly what God had in mind. It's one kid at a time. Send Shortly and Lefty and Moreno to me and I'll do anything to help them leave behind all the stuff and embrace the future.

Read more here: http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Aug1999/feature1.asp

Members of the Jesuit Alumni in Arizona are graduates of some 28 Jesuit universities and 47 Jesuit high schools in the United States now living in Arizona. They meet periodically to celebrate their Jesuit backgrounds, to stimulate and encourage one another to be thinking members of their Church, their city, and their state, to have life and have it more abundantly.

PS. WE HAVE NO DUES. To join, please write us at JAAZ850@aol.com.