Ulises (Uli) Covarrubias, SJ, was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, but has called Inglewood, California, home since the age two. The experience of belonging to two cultures, yet often feeling like he didn’t fully belong in either, marked his worldview, making him a person who is willing to take on an outsider’s perspective and promote dialogue and reconciliation. This is what led Uli to pursue his bachelor’s degree in international development studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and his master’s degree in public diplomacy from the University of Southern California.
While the idea of becoming a priest first floated in his mind as a teenager, Uli didn’t seriously consider it until after attending an ordination Mass. The example of the newly ordained men and the joy of the people of God gave him the motivation to begin discerning a vocation to the priesthood.
Uli reached out to the Jesuits at the suggestion of a friend who said there was “something special” about their spirituality. The more he learned, the more he loved. He was particularly drawn to their work in education, their commitment to those who live on the margins and their promotion of Ignatian spirituality. He felt confirmed in his desire to be a Jesuit after doing an eight-day discernment retreat in silence, which he describes as a very real, very deep and very personal encounter with the risen Christ.
In 2014, he entered the novitiate. Since then, he has lived in St. Louis, where he studied philosophy and received a master’s degree in Spanish at Saint Louis University. For regency, Uli taught religion and Spanish in the midst of the pandemic at Seattle Preparatory School, after which he was missioned to Paris for theology studies at Facultés Loyola Paris. He was ordained in June 2025 and is currently at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry working on a Licentiate in Sacred Theology in spirituality.
