Themes In A Father's Love

I believe that Father Gregory Boyle shouldn’t tell the police about the information he knows about the gang members.

Father Boyle has worked hard to gain the gang members' trust and he shouldn't jeopardize it. We know that the gang members gave the father their trust because in Elizabeth Venant's " A Father's Love " it states, "... The gang members honored him with a handle, ‘G-Dog’..."revealing that they now trusted and treated him like one of them and allowed him to know information that an everyday person wouldn't know. Also, the text states, “... Listening to their problems…”demonstrating that they trusted him because if they didn't trust Father Boyle they would not be telling him their problems.

If Father Boyle tells the police, the gang members could go after him and kill him. “... 17 - year - old Richard Paez, shot down at a pizza parlor...” this shows that they are very violent and can be expected to to kill. Furthermore, “They had jumped a member of a rival gang on church property,” Since, the gang members did this on the church property what's to stop them from losing respect for the priest and hurting him. They are dangerous and Father Boyle should not jeopardize himself by telling the police.

On the other hand, if Father Boyle tells the police the information he knows, then the children that attend school at
The Father Gregory has tried to reason with the police and it has come to the point where he says, “...[there] strategy doesn't work." The police must know that Father Boyle is doing a better job because if not why would he say such a thing. In fact, they are even taking credit for improvements that Father Boyle has done. For example, in the article Sgt.Carlos Flores comments, "are lucky if you can buy [drugs] once a day, an improvement…” Furthermore, the sergeant said that it is thanks to the police force for the