The task of dealing comprehensively with gangs belongs to the city, not to law enforcement.

Young people can change and grow. Every parent knows that.

I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine.

Children find themselves adrift not because the informational signposts are illegible, but because there is no one around to guide and accompany them.

Most citizens viewing the tape of Rodney G. King being beaten by police officers were stunned and uncomprehending. Most citizens, that is, but the urban poor.

As a society, we come up lacking in many of the marks of compassion and wisdom by which we measure ourselves as civilized.

I think not everything that works helps, and not everything that helps works.

Jesus did not only serve the needs of the people, but truly hoped that the people and Jesus would be one.

The power of community policing is in the relationship. This can happen only if an officer sticks around for a while.

We can't just settle for the low bar of pope as media-savvy, canny Curia manager.

I don't save people. God saves people. I can point them in the right direction. I can say, 'There's that door. I think if you walked through it, you'd be happier than you are.'

Ours is a God who waits. So who are we not to?

So complex are all the ingredients that cause gang membership that it seems virtually impossible to isolate one solution that can address them all and thereby manufacture a hope for the future upon which these kids can rely.

I would hope that government officials have a healthy respect for the complexity of the gang problem. They should never lose sight of the fact that there are human beings involved. There is no single solution.

People have started to see that 'smart on crime' rather than 'tough on crime' makes sense.

We need a pope to usher in a new era of inclusion, the end of a sinful clericalism, and a strong sense of duty to those on society's margins. The 1 billion faithful long for a leader who is fearless and driven - not by terror but by love.

We need not wait for further, well-placed home video cameras to see that low-intensity warfare is being waged against low-income minorities. We need only listen to the voices of the poor; they can testify that they are dehumanized, disparaged, and despised by the police.

The draconian spirit that seeks to enhance penalties and to lower the age at which juveniles will be tries as adults, is part of the 'whole cloth' of three strikes. Our failure to address the depair of our inner-city youth is only delayed by our over-confidence in a stance that is 'tougher than thou.'

You don't really get Jesus saying very often there'll be pie in the sky when you die. He's really talking about now and today, and it's supposed to be like that. You're supposed to delight in what's right in front of you.

All politics are local, and so in church.

We are among the handful of countries that has difficulty distinguishing juveniles from adults where crime is concerned. We are convinced that if a child commits an adult crime, that kid is magically transformed into an adult. Consequently, we try juveniles as adults.

We lose our right to be surprised that California has the highest recidivism rate in the country if we refuse to hire folks who have taken responsibility for their crimes and have done their time.

You prevent kids from joining gangs by offering after-school programs, sports, mentoring, and positive engagement with adults. You intervene with gang members by offering alternatives and employment to help redirect their lives. You deal with areas of high gang crime activity with real community policing. We know what works.

I'm not opposed to success.

Homeboy Bakery is an alternative to kids who have found themselves, regrettably, in gangs and want to redirect their lives.

The Church should say, 'I'm frightened that women will be ordained;' that's honest, say that. But don't say, 'It's a grave sin,' because that's nonsense.

My church is in the detention facilities where I preside and celebrate the Eucharist. To me that's the church. That's the people of God.

Businesses have come and gone at Homeboy Industries. We have had starts and stops, but anything worth doing is worth failing at. We started Homeboy Plumbing. That didn't go so well. Who knew? People didn't want gang members in their homes. I just didn't see that coming.

The poor evangelize you about what's important and what is the Gospel, and that that's where the joy is.

I love movies.

I know two L.A.s. Half my life was around the house my folks had for 46 years at 3rd and Norton. The other half was in Boyle Heights on the Eastside, working with gang members.

We ought not to demonize a single gang member, and we ought not to romanticize a single gang.

Most employers just aren't willing to look beyond the dumbest or worst thing someone has done.

The business of second chances is everybody's business.

I feel called to be faithful.

I don't believe in mistakes. Everything belongs, and, as the homies say, 'It's all good.'

Me wanting a gang member to have a different life would never be the same as that gang member wanting to have one.

The idea that any law enforcement agency or person would ever know these gang members better than Homeboy Industries is impossible.

I'm not going to be here forever. I don't plan on going anywhere, but I don't know anybody for whom death is an exception.

There is no such thing as a bad cop, only disturbing and dominant cop thinking that will invariably lead to excessive force and tragic outcomes.

We can't get at crime unless we know what language it speaks. Otherwise, we are just suppressing the cough, not curing the disease.

I spent the summers of 1984 and 1985 as an associate pastor at Dolores Mission Church, the poorest parish in the Los Angeles archdiocese. In 1986, I became pastor of the church.

For over twenty years, Homeboy Industries has chosen to stand with those on the margins and those whose burdens are more than they can bear; it stands with the poor and the powerless, with the easily-despised and the readily-left out.

I founded Homeboy Industries in 1988 after I buried my first young person killed in our streets because of gang violence.

Richard Rohr is a theologian that I read.

I have a lot of people in my life, and I think there's something key: the thing that leads to intimacy and relationship and connection is tenderness.

Delegations from all over the world visit Homeboy Industries and scratch their heads as we tell them of our difficulty in placing our people in jobs after their time with us. Americans' seeming refusal to believe in a person's ability to redeem himself strikes these folks as foreign indeed.

Anyone who knows gangs knows that lawmakers cannot conceive of a law that would lead a hard-core gang member to 'think twice.'

If the Los Angeles Police Department had enough officers, it could focus on one part of the community and stay there long enough to know and respect the people the officers are called on to protect and serve.

We don't need a specialized gang unit. We need patrol officers who specialize in knowing their community.