Father Boyle Bids Farewell to Homeboys : Religion: The Dolores Mission Church priest begs gang members to stop the killing. But many predict that an informal truce will not last.

Father Gregory J. Boyle, whose love and caring heart brought hope to a hardened Boyle Heights barrio, bade a tearful farewell to the parish Sunday, imploring his homeboys to prove their love for him by not killing each other.

“Please have a good life,” Boyle entreated members of a half-dozen warring gangs during his final homily at the Dolores Mission Church east of downtown Los Angeles. “I want to know your children, and I want to know your grandchildren. And I want to baptize them, and I don’t ever want to bury one of la raza again.”

Boyle choked on his words, weeping as he spoke and pausing frequently to regain his composure. One woman in a colorful dress raced to the makeshift altar in the church parking lot to offer the teary priest a tissue.

“The gangbanging must stop. Please make it stop,” Boyle pleaded. “If you do that, then I will know that you love me.”

More than 1,200 residents from across the Eastside of Los Angeles crowded onto the sweltering asphalt sanctuary set up outside the tiny church to allow a larger crowd to hear the farewell Mass by the man whom gang members know as “G-Dog.” On Friday, Boyle ends six years as pastor of the poorest parish in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to undertake the yearlong spiritual retreat required of all Jesuits.

“It is so sad,” said Maria Guadalupe Vascas, her expression solemn and stoic as she displayed a hastily framed newspaper photograph of Boyle. “He did so much for all of us. Where do we go from here?”

While preparing for Communion and Mass on Sunday, Boyle also presided over a tenuous peace among the community’s gangs, all of whom had been invited to the service as a sign of solidarity and respect for the priest.

It was the first time in over a year that members of the East L.A. Dukes had been permitted south of 1st Street, territory carefully guarded by the Mob Crew and Cuatro Flats gangs.

But Boyle’s remarks were for all gang members, and they struck hard at the hearts of cholos from throughout the neighborhood. Tough young men with tattoos and cropped hair wept openly as Boyle’s cracking voice spoke directly to them.

“Hopefully he is going to come back, and hopefully we will all still be alive,” said Maria Rodriguez, 17, as she stroked the brow of a sobbing member of the East L.A. Dukes.

A handful of gang members scuffled outside the parking lot on Gless Street, but police reported no major incidents. Members of several gangs said they have put aside longstanding rivalries for the day in a show of respect for Boyle, but most predicted that the informal truce would not last long.

“I wish he wouldn’t leave, because he keeps the peace,” said Hector Sanchez, 25, a member of Cuatro Flats. Odds are “nine times out of 10, things are going to get worse now.”

Luis Colocio, a member of the rival East L.A. Dukes, predicted that the respite would last only days.

“We are sad and upset,” said Colocio, 17, a small wooden crucifix around his neck and a gang moniker tattooed across his belly. “But he has to do his thing. And we have to do our thing.”

Many gang members have related the same ominous predictions to Boyle, leading to fears among some residents that all-out warfare will erupt upon the priest’s departure Friday. Boyle used his homily Sunday to try to strengthen ties between the community and the gangs.

“I love you very much,” Boyle said. “I am a richer man because I know you. But you also know the pain it has been to bury you. You know that. You cannot have a tag on your neck that says: ‘Brown and proud,’ and gang-bang. You can’t do it. It is impossible because gangbanging is destroying la raza. “

Boyle, 38, gained nationwide celebrity for his unconventional bid to quell gang violence in the predominantly Latino parish.

His strategy--to “love them into submission”--failed to stop gang killings, which more than doubled in the community during his tenure at the mission. But in a testament to the power of one man’s spiritual tenacity, Boyle was able to penetrate the hardened souls of countless homies, befriending them, and in many cases becoming the father figure they never had.

Boyle said he worries about leaving the young men who regard him as family, but he said burying 26 young victims of the escalating gang violence has left him near burnout. He has requested that he be returned to Dolores Mission next summer, but his superiors at the California Province of the Society of Jesus have not indicated where he will be posted.