Pope Francis’ last public words found a place in a Pasadena celebration Monday.
Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, was in the city for the grand opening of Homeboy Puppy Fades dog grooming salon. The new business is one of 14 social enterprises from Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program.
Boyle, 70, said the Pope’s last public words touched on what Homeboy Industries is about.
“It was a kind of lament and a challenge and ended up with an invitation,” he said.
In his Easter Sunday message delivered hours before his death, the Pope condemned the contempt people, including government leaders, direct toward “the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants.”
“We’ve stirred up, he called it, a contempt against those in the margins,” Boyle said. “And we might add gang members, and returning citizens, the poor and those whose burdens are more than they could bear and those whose dignity has been denied. But all of us, he says, are God’s children. That’s how we see things at Homeboy.”
The new venture, on 446 S. Fair Oaks Ave., is not only a service for dog owners and their pets, but an “opportunity for folks to inhabit the truth of who they are and their purpose, to continue to announce the message, ‘What if we were to invest in people rather than just futilely incarcerate our way out of our problems?’ That’s what this represents.”
Boyle added that he hopes the Pope’s invitation “that all of us are God’s children will be an added incentive for people in Pasadena to bring their dogs here and to allow an opportunity for people to redirect their lives with great purpose and intentionality.”
Victor Gordo, mayor of Pasadena, speaks at the grand opening of Homeboy Puppy Fades, the second social enterprise from the Los Angeles-based rehabilitation program in the city. (Anissa Rivera)Pasadena Mayor Victor M. Gordo touted the new venture, Homeboy’s second in Pasadena, as more than just an economic development project. Homeboy’s partnership with Tepito Coffee, a coffee shop and coffee-growing venture, opened last August beside Vroman’s Bookstore.
“This is not just a special business, but a special place because it will transform lives,” Gordo said. “We want to see more of these creative ideas that transform lives and improve our city.”
Steve Delgado, Homeboy’s co-CEO, said this social enterprise joins 13 other businesses Homeboy has started, including a bakery, café, catering, a diner at L.A. City Hall, electronics recycling, silkscreening and embroidery and merchandising.
“At Homeboy Industries, we pride ourselves in creating community and kinship, places where people are safe, seen, and cherished, not only in our social service agency where we serve almost 10,000 people per year, but here in our social enterprises,” Delgado, of Whittier, said.
Customers to the salon would “join our community of kinship and be a part of the idea of Homeboy, which is we belong to each other. That’s what Puppy Fades is about.”
Richard Orea, 36, graduated from Homeboy’s 18-month re-entry program in December after completing rehab.
“I was looking for a new way of life,” Orea said. “My way wasn’t working.”
Homeboy training honed his job, communication and coping skills, “and in the process I gained a family,” Orea said. “I’m so happy to be part of this new enterprise. I’ve found a purpose in life.”
Kat Carrido-Bonds, marketing director for Homeboy Industries, said Puppy Fades is the start of a new adventure for the organization and the people it serves.
“I admire their bravery. They show up every day,” she said. “The world can be a tough place to re-enter, especially with all the trauma they’ve faced, but we have a saying in Homeboy about the swing of the door, that when you step into Homeboy, you’re opening the door to another chance.”
Dee Lujan, 29, of Hacienda Heights, one of two managers of Homeboy Puppy Fades dog grooming salon, and her dog Atticus, 5, welcome guests to the salon’s grand opening in Pasadena on Monday. (Photo by Anissa V. RIvera)The idea for the business came from “the homies” themselves, Boyle said, many of whom completed dog grooming courses in institutions. Homeboy Puppy Fades employs four certified pet groomers and two managers. They can groom up to 20 dogs a day.
Damien Guerrero 34, of El Sereno, is an intern with the new business, but already comes with a lot of pet grooming experience. He used to work at a dog daycare.
“Dog grooming has always been my passion, and can I say? Sometimes I like dogs more than people,” Guerrero said with a smile.
Formerly homeless, Guerrero said he grew up in the gang lifestyle and is five years drug-free and clean on June 19. A big part of his joy now comes from Lily, a 9-year-old Jack Russell mix he is watching for his brother who is serving time in prison.
“I wouldn’t know what to do without her,” Guerrero said. “People tell me she’s just a dog, but I tell them she’s my baby girl. She’s loving.”
He and Lily have found family in Homeboy, too, even as Boyle teased he would have to perform an exorcism on Lily, who sports a bright blue stripe on her back.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here,” Guerrero said.
For Boyle, the salon is a jump start for the brave.
“They have carried more than most people and they’ve had their dignity denied and carried burdens more than they can bear, and yet they’ve managed to rise above all that and have, you know, real fashioning of a future for themselves, against all odds, which is kind of remarkable,” he said.
The death of a remarkable Pope who championed anyone on the margins gave Boyle pause during the celebration. Both men belong to the almost-500-year-old religious order, Society of Jesus, known for its missionary and pastoral work, schools and scholarship.
Aside from an affinity for social justice and work with marginalized communities, Boyle and the 266th leader of the Roman Catholic Church collaborated on the Pope’s 2018 book, “Sharing the Wisdom of Time.” In it, Boyle wrote about Homeboy Industries and its “mutually ennobling work,” where people go to the margins “so that the margins and the folks there will make you different.”
Boyle met Pope Francis in Rome, probably in 2019. He remembers the 88-year-old Argentine, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, as distinctively attentive.
“It was like no one else existed,” Boyle said of their meeting. “It was really a remarkable thing. But more than that, he really stood with folks on the margins and the hopes of erasing the margins. He was the real deal: authentic, took seriously what Jesus took seriously, you know, inclusion, non-violence, unconditional loving kindness and compassion and acceptance. My hope and prayer is that the next one will emulate his leadership and goodness.”
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