Missionaries of the Sacred

While teaching moral theology in my hometown of Reading, PA, I would invite police officers who worked in the “Gangs and Graffiti” program to talk to my sophomore students about the gang situation within the city. Dressed in civilian clothes, these officers would meet with gang members in order to help establish peace among the rival groups. This valuable program came to an end because of “political reasons” as one officer explained.

Here in Illinois, there was the national “Cease-Fire” prayer coalition which sought to end the shootings and killings from gang feuds. We would schedule events for prayer rallies for the city of Aurora and also worked in street-level outreach in gang-related areas to distribute educational literature to families. Unfortunately, IL’s Cease-Fire Chapter had to “cease” existing because the former Governor of IL discontinued funding the program because of budgetary reasons.

Most recently, I asked a police officer if the department has any program to prevent gang formation and gang violence. His response was, “No, we arrest them.”