Biden awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit priest for work with youth
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President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit Father Greg Boyle on May 3, 2024. / Screenshot/public domainCNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).The White House on Friday announced that Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside 18 other recipients this afternoon. Boyle, ordained a priest in 1984, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 while pastor of Dolores Mission, a Catholic church and school in an area that at one time had one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in Los Angeles. Today, Homeboy Industries claims to be the largest gang-intervention program in the United States.The successful ministry, which now operates nationwide, offers training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail, as well as case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.Wh...
President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit Father Greg Boyle on May 3, 2024. / Screenshot/public domain
CNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
The White House on Friday announced that Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside 18 other recipients this afternoon.
Boyle, ordained a priest in 1984, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 while pastor of Dolores Mission, a Catholic church and school in an area that at one time had one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in Los Angeles.
Today, Homeboy Industries claims to be the largest gang-intervention program in the United States.
The successful ministry, which now operates nationwide, offers training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail, as well as case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.
While the group has said it is "not affiliated with any particular religion," it also notes that many of its works are "in line with the Jesuit practice of social justice," and Boyle has said that the organization does not seek to "downplay" its Catholic identity.
Boyle described the ministry several years ago to CNA as "soaked with the Gospel."
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, is presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors, the White House says.
In announcing this year's recipients, the White House noted that the honorees "built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better."
"They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service," the announcement says.
Biden, who is Catholic, announced that among the honorees is former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State John Kerry, both fellow Catholics known for their pro-abortion advocacy.
Other honorees this year include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Vice President Al Gore, Olympian Katie Ledecky, and actress Michelle Yeoh.
In 2020, Boyle was one of several hundred religious leaders who signed an endorsement of Biden's campaign. The priest has called for the Church to "include with more compassion our LGBTQ sisters and brothers."
In 2021, meanwhile, Homeboy Industries received $20 million in grants from prominent progressive backers Mackenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.
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Pope Francis meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at the Vatican, Oct. 4, 2021. / Credit: Vatican MediaWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 17, 2024 / 18:04 pm (CNA).Pope Francis might be traveling to Turkey next year for the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicea, according to Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew in comments he made on Thursday.Although the Holy See has not confirmed any travel plans, the ecumenical patriarch told a group of reporters that a committee is being established to organize a visit, according to the Orthodox Times. The referenced council took place in the ancient city of Nicea in 325 A.D. in the former Roman Empire, which is now the present-day city of Iznik in Turkey. "His Holiness Pope Francis wishes for us to jointly celebrate this important anniversary," Bartholomew said.The Council of Nicea was the first ecumenical council in the Church. It is accepted by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, th...
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School children read about the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis at the celebration of his new shrine at St. Dominic Parish in Brick, New Jersey. Oct, 1, 2023. / Credit: Thomas P. Costello IIACI Prensa Staff, May 17, 2024 / 14:46 pm (CNA).The film "Eucharistic Miracles: The Heartbeat of Heaven" about Blessed Carlo Acutis and the Eucharistic miracles he studied with such devotion is showing in theaters across multiple U.S. states and the nation's capital this weekend. Specifically, the feature film is showing in theaters in California; Nevada; Arizona; Utah; Idaho; Texas; Washington; Oregon; Indiana; New Jersey; Colorado; New York; Tennessee; Michigan; Georgia; Illinois; Florida; Kansas; Washington, D.C.; Virginia; Pennsylvania; and Mississippi.Gaby Jácoba, director of the International Catholic Film Festival, which is bringing the film about Acutis to movie theaters in the United States, emphasized the importance of "attending the first weekend" to see the film, in order for th...
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A Marian apparition. / Credit: "The World of Marian Apparitions: Mary's Appearances and Messages from Fatima to Today"Rome Newsroom, May 17, 2024 / 06:53 am (CNA).The Vatican's top doctrinal office is centralizing its authority over the investigation of alleged Marian apparitions and other religious phenomena under new norms it issued Friday, a break from past protocols that gave local bishops greater autonomy in discerning such cases.While emphasizing that "discernment in this area remains the task of the diocesan bishop," the new guidelines state that the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith "must always be consulted and give final approval to what the bishop decides before he announces a determination on an event of alleged supernatural origin." The document spelling out the new procedures, titled "Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena," explains that the doctrinal office previously played a role in the eva...