Prisoners' Sunday: 'remove the blindfold of our perceptions to see the goodness in others'

Bishop Martin Hayes

Source: Irish Catholic Media Office

Bishop Martin Hayes, Bishop of Kilmore and the Bishops' Conference liaison to the Irish Prison Service writes:

Today, on this Prisoners' Sunday, we encourage everyone to reflect on and pray for prisoners and their families.

I wish to draw your attention to the work of Father Greg Boyle SJ who is the founder of Homeboy Industries which is a gang intervention and rehabilitation programme in Los Angeles. He started a school as there were no places for those gang members in their local schools, and then he started Homeboy Industries as there was little appetite among employers to take on the graduates from his school.

Father Greg believes that there is no bad person, only people who have not yet discovered the good within them. His ministry is based on two foundational Gospel messages that, everyone is good, as each is made in the image of God; and, we all belong to each other.

Elaborating on these foundational principles, Father Greg states that people must see themselves as good and that we must remove the blindfold of our perceptions to see this goodness in others. He believes that God has a place for each one of us, and he feels called to stand with those gang members, especially at the time of funerals for their fellow members. It means going to the margins, not to change them, but to be changed by them, and he quotes Mother Teresa, Saint Teresa of Calcutta: "we've forgotten that we belong to each other". Father Greg does acknowledge that serious mental illness is a barrier to communicating that sense of belonging.

In his Homeboy enterprise, Father Greg emphasises that there be no 'othering', that 'we are all one' so that healing can occur to form a community of cherished belonging. Inspired by the spirituality of Meister Eckhart that "God is wild and spacious" - Father Greg affirms that "God sees God's people" as God is a God of love who cannot demonise anyone.

Father Greg calls us to look at what each person is carrying in terms of their dysfunctional family of origin. In showing God's love to those who attend Homeboy, he remains hopeful having celebrated with thousands of Homeboys and Homegirls their decision to contribute to the community life of Homeboy Industries, to their own home life and to their wider communities in Los Angeles.

Of those in his care, Father Greg says they are "used to being watched and are not used to being seen" for their potential to do good. In stating that "all of us are a whole lot more that the worst thing we have ever done," Father Greg challenges us to look at new ways of intervening with, and rehabilitating, those who are prisoners today.

In that regard, I am delighted to report that the Irish Red Cross has pioneered a year-long certificate training throughout the Irish Prison Service (IPS) called the Community Based Health and First Aid Programme. The course involves the participation of IPS governors, training units, Education Training Boards (ETBs), psychologists and nurses. It is popular with young male prisoners and its success has been emulated by other jurisdictions in Europe.

Perhaps, building on Father Greg's initiative, members of Irish gangs could be enticed to participate in an Irish model of Homeboy Industries, based on that pioneered in Los Angeles.

For further details see Father Greg Boyle: Welcoming the Unwelcome - THE THREAD Documentary Series online.