Lucas S. Sharma Biography

Lucas S. Sharma, SJ, was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, and was adopted when he was six months old. He grew up in Olympia, Washington, and is the oldest of four children. While he did not know it at the time, the first Jesuit Lucas met was Fr. Bill Hausmann, SJ, who worked for a year at his parish in Olympia. (He died the year Lucas took vows and his vow cross was Fr. Bill’s.) He went to Gonzaga University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and economics. Lucas worked as a Jesuit Volunteer at Bread for the City in Washington, D.C.; as legal clinic coordinator representing clients in Social Security court; and did affordable housing advocacy. He then went to Loyola University Chicago for a Ph.D. in sociology. Having met such wonderful scholastics doing philosophy studies there, Lucas finished his master’s degree and entered the Society of Jesus in 2012. During the novitiate, Lucas worked as a chaplain at Eastlake Juvenile Hall and tutored children at Dolores Mission School, both in Los Angeles. He received a kidney transplant while living in Seattle during his second year of novitiate from a Gonzaga University classmate. Lucas went to philosophy studies at Fordham University and worked as chaplain at a low-income dialysis unit in the Bronx. For regency, Lucas taught sociology at Seattle University (SU) and was a research fellow at SU’s Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, which worked to infuse the Catholic intellectual tradition across disciplines in the university. After regency, Lucas attended the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California. Due to his kidney transplant and uncertainly with the coronavirus, Lucas spent one year of theology studies sheltering in place with the retired men at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California, something he holds as a special experience in his formation. He also worked as an intern and eventually as a deacon at St. Ignatius Parish in San Francisco. Lucas has also served on the Jesuits West Equity and Inclusion Committee since 2017, the board of directors of JVC Northwest since 2018 and the board of trustees of Seattle University since 2019. Upon ordination, Lucas will work for St. Ignatius Parish in San Francisco for the summer and move to San Diego in the fall to pursue a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of California San Diego.