Fr. Bob Gbedolo, S.J.

Fr. Bob Oke Gbedolo, S.J. is the 15^th child of a polygamous Beninese family. Born in Paouignan, he first expressed the desire of becoming a priest at the age of 6. At the root of such a desire was a childish admiration towards the parish priest, perceived as the star of the city. In November 1998, Oke eventually entered the diocesan seminary at the age of 12 and spent the next 8 years of his schooling there. At one moment when he had become a teen-ager, Oke read about the Jesuits and began his journey with them beginning in 2006.

The Benin republic is part of the French West Africa (AOC) province of the Jesuits, together with 14 other countries. However, Oke’s novitiate was in the Central Africa Province (ACE). Reading about the Bavarian Loyola Productions work during those 2 years in the novitiate inspired in him to enhance his Jesuit vocation of preaching the Gospel through use of the media. He made his vows in 2009, taught at a Jesuit high school in Cameroon, and was ordained a priest in July 2018. His STL thesis at JST Berkeley in 2019 was entitled: “Depicting the Incarnation: Theodore the Studite and Engelbert Mveng on the Particularity and Universality of Christ.” After 3 years of fieldwork in Chad, he has returned to California and is now studying “to find Jesus in the movies” as he pursues an MFA in the School of Film and Television at LMU.