Fr. Jack grew up on a cattle ranch in Oregon and went to Gonzaga University, graduating with degrees in theater and English literature. He then studied acting and worked as a theater artist in New York and Seattle for ten years before entering the Society of Jesus. He initially became interested in religious life when he read a broken spined paperback copy of Thomas Merton’s Seven Story Mountain which recounts one man’s conversion from the emptiness of worldly life into the vocation of a silent monk. Fr. Bentz was familiar with a worldly life but becoming a silent monk seemed a stretch, so he responded to Christ’s call to join the Jesuits where he has flourished.

Jack has served in campus ministry at Seattle University and Gonzaga as well as Director of Vocations for the Oregon Jesuits, founding artistic director of a bilingual theater company called Deus X Machina, and as director of Bronco Catholic, the Catholic student center at Boise State University. Prior to being assigned to Blessed Sacrament, Jack served four years with the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, leading the implementation of a newly revised training program for Jesuit seminarians in the Bronx. Fr. Bentz has been pastor at Blessed Sacrament Hollywood since August 2021 and has loved getting to know Los Angeles and the diverse community that gathers here on the campus.

Fr. Steve was born in San Diego and met the Jesuits when he was an undergrad college student at Stanford. He joined the Jesuits in 1990 and was ordained a priest at Blessed Sacrament Hollywood in June 2001. He has served at the University of San Francisco, Loyola Institute for Spirituality, and the Jesuit Novitiate in Culver City. He speaks English and Spanish, and enjoys Ignatian spirituality, movies, reading, and walking in nature.

Fr. Mike was born and raised in the “Garden of Eden”, a suburb outside of Los Angeles called Thousand Oaks. Vivid childhood memories include long summer days winning championships for the Lakers in his driveway with neighborhood friends, parties with relatives seemingly every weekend, and despite his constant protestations, the 10:45 Sunday mass at St. Julie’s with his parents and older siblings, Patrick and Tricia. After graduating from UC Berkeley, he began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers with dreams of becoming filthy rich, though God had other plans. It was here, living in San Francisco that he met the Jesuits, and in particular, Charlie Gagan at St. Ignatius Parish.