Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle was a guest on The Dr. Phil show that aired in December on “Trouble Teens Turnaround.” Fr. Boyle, who is executive director of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention and rehab center, discussed strategies to help troubled kids.

“We get about 15,000 folks who walk through our doors every year, gang members trying to redirect their lives,” said Boyle, who is also author of “Tattoos on the Heart” (#12 on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list for December 26, 2010). “They might come for tattoo removal and discover that we can locate a job for them or maybe they need counseling.”

One former gang member talked about how Boyle helped him. “Upon release [from prison], I came and talked to Fr. Greg, and he just signed me up and told me, ‘My son, come back Tuesday.’ After that, I’ve been working here ever since. Without Homeboy Industries, I’d probably be back in jail right now.”

“Los Angeles is the gang capital of the world,” said Boyle. “In L.A. County, we have 1,100 gangs and 86,000 gang members. I buried my first young person in 1988. I buried my 170th this morning.”

Boyle said the kids need to have an alternative to gangs. “You want to be able to say ‘Leave that behind; come over here and we’ll help you. We’ll give you a job and make sure you stay in school.’”

For more on the episode, visit the Dr. Phil website.

This morning, Jesuit Father James Martin, cultural editor for America magazine and author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, appeared on the Fox & Friends show to discuss if the true meaning of Christmas is being lost due to consumerism and the focus on shopping in our society. Father Martin said during the program that “people feel really overwhelmed by the consumerism and they have a hard time carving out a spiritual space for Christmas”. During the interview, Martin discussed how using overtly Christian themes like “believe”, which are associated with Christmas and are now just being used to market goods, disassociates the religious aspects of the holiday.

You can watch the interview with Martin here.

Jesuit Father Myles Sheehan, Provincial of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, recently appeared on CatholicTV to discuss his role as provincial and his vocation as a doctor with the hosts of This is the Day show. His interview begins at 15:09 in the video below.

Jesuit Father Eddie Siebert directing a scene in Rome, with the assistant cameraman Joe Ellingwood. Photo Credit: Jennifer Smith-Mayo

The role of a film and media production executive can often be an uphill battle. Yet for Jesuit Father Eddie Siebert, the founder and president of Loyola Productions, being a priest with a production company can provide some advantages.

“Because I’m a Jesuit, if there’s a good Catholic executive over at Sony, they’ll take a meeting. Sometimes they take you seriously and sometimes it’s, ‘Well that’s great, Father, keep up the good work.’ I’ve had to straddle this really awkward fence of being a spiritually empowered Jesuit with a mainstream entertainment production company that’s trying to do cutting-edge material. And that’s really tricky.”

To read the full New York Times Article on Loyola Productions, please go here.

One of the guests on “The Colbert Report” last night was  Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., Ph.D.,  a respected planetary scientist and expert on meteorites who works at the Vatican Observatory in Rome and Tucson. 

Brother Consolmagno  is the author of numerous books on the intersection of science and faith, including Brother Astronomer and God’s Mechanics.

Political humorist and comedian Stephen Colbert interviewed Brother Consolmagno on the satirical show and asked why the Vatican accepts the possibility of alien life.