Meet the Catholic Priest Whose ‘Jeopardy!’ Appearance Took the Internet by Storm| National Catholic Register

Tea Jeopardy! episode that aired Sept. 19 was projected on a big screen in the gym of St. Ignatius Martyr parish in Austin, Texas. Nearly 200 students, teachers, staff and parents avidly watched. The children booed whenever two of the contestants answered a question correctly and cheered wildly when the third contestant knew the answer.

That’s because their favored competitor, watching with them that day wearing a Jeopardy! hat, is part of the parish: Holy Cross Father Steve Jakubowski, a parochial vicar at St. Ignatius. “They could not have picked a better person (to be on the show),” says Lori Nava, a youth minister at the parish. “He’s so smart. It’s fun. He’s so good with the kids. He brings with him such zeal and energy. He’s a joy.”

Father Jakubowski’s vocation was front and center on the show. He wore his black clerics/white collar, and a large cross dangled from his neck. Ken Jennings, the host, besides courteously addressing him as “Father Steve,” made several quips referencing his vocation. The priest’s quiet charisma, combined with his clerical identity, generated a buzz on social media.

“Father Steve is so enjoyable to watch. He’s so happy to be there,” posted a woman on X (formerly Twitter). “He won the hearts of the internet,” someone else posted.

His mom and dad, Susan and Mike, agree. “Our prayer was that the joy of his vocation would come through. That was true in spades,” says his mother. “He was a poster, a billboard, for the Church.”

Being on TV and competing on a show he had watched as a boy was fun. But it did serve a higher purpose, says Father Jakubowski. “I hope some good came out of it. My job is to preach the Gospel. That has nothing to do with Jeopardy!. But it does reach a large audience. So I hope I made a positive impression of a priest,” he told the Register.

The TV show appearance was only the latest, but certainly not the main, highlight for Father Jakubowski, 29, in a memorable six-week stretch. He was ordained in April at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in math and philosophy. Less than a week before the show aired, he officiated at his sister’s wedding at their home parish, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Talk about a highlight for a parent. “To walk down the aisle with my daughter and hand her to my son — that was surreal,” says dad Mike.)

Jennings asked him on the show what was harder, being on Jeopardy! or serving as a new priest. With his trademark self-effacing grin, Father Jakubowski replied: “Being a priest.” He wasn’t given time, of course, to expound on the blessings of ministry.

“It’s been such a joy. It’s such a great parish,” he told the Register. “There are a lot of great families here. It’s a real privilege.”

The symbol of the Holy Cross order he wore around his neck at the Jeopardy! taping is central to his life. “I am amazed at the audacity of our motto: Ave Crux, Spes Unica — ‘Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope.’ The cross… is not something to be endured and then set aside. It is our only hope. And that means we ought to run toward it and not away from it,” he said.

Getting on the show didn’t exactly happen overnight. He initially applied a decade ago. He heard nothing. He applied again a couple of years ago by taking an online quiz. He took a second online quiz and then was asked to play a Zoom version of the game. More silence from the show — until “I heard from the void,” as he put it. The show’s producers suddenly asked him to come to Los Angeles for a taping in April.

Father Jakubowski secured permission from his superiors in his order and his parish and stayed in Los Angeles with Holy Cross members. It took about an actual hour to tape the 30-minute show. He spent most of the day “just standing around” because five shows are taped in a single day. Still, his clerical garb made it easy for the show’s workers to make small talk with him.

He wasn’t allowed to disclose how he did on the show. “He told me, ‘Mom, if I told you, you wouldn’t be able to tell anyone.’ So I didn’t find out,” says his mom. But his parents expected him to do well. “He was a great student. Did the Quiz Bowl; National Merit Scholar,” she says. Adds his father, “He’s a real geography buff. He can probably tell you what the second-longest river in Mongolia is. The thing about the show is you don’t know what the categories may be.”

Interestingly, his sister, Elizabeth, on her honeymoon at Glacier National Park in Montana, watched. “The only communication we got from her while she was away was a screenshot of the Jeopardy! show,” his mom says.

How did he do on the show?

He took an early commanding lead, especially getting correct answers in the “Gemstone” category. “That just goes back to what I learned as a kid,” he told the Register.

But his lead went away when he misfired with the “UK Cities” category. “It’s where you can visit the Ulster Museum and nearby Botanic Gardens,” Jennings read. “What is Derry,” said Father Jakubowski. “I’m good at geography, but I just blanked on Belfast,” he told the Register.

Jennings graciously quipped, “Sorry to give you such a Protestant question, Father.”

The final question, in which contestants can wager as much as they have, related to “NY Movies.” Father Jakubowski knew the teacher next to him was from Brooklyn, but he bet $5,301 of his $5,400. The question: “Frank Sinatra got upset that a photo of him caught fire in a Brooklyn pizzeria in the film.”

Godfather: Part II was the priest’s incorrect answer. The teacher knew that the film, made five years before Father Jakubowski was born, was Do the Right Thing.

That left Father Jakubowski in third place with a scant $99. Jennings made another quip: “But as you know the last shall be first, so it’s all right.”

“I’m not sure that’s what Jesus had in mind!” Father Jakubowski good-naturedly told the Register.

Per the game rules, Father Jakubowski got to take home $2,000. He took a vow of poverty, so that check, when it arrives, will go to his order.

A few internet posts questioned why Jennings addressed Jakubowski as “Father.” Throughout the years, every contestant, including doctors, have been called by their first name only. He wore his clerical garb during the Zoom session, and before the taping, no one on the show objected to it. “I wanted to show who I am in real life,” he says.

His mom was glad he dressed as he did. “Being a priest is not a job,” she says. “It’s part of his identity.”