Hambleton is the Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy

Bass is a Screenwriter & entertainment executive

A SEMINARIAN'S CALLING. A FAITH TESTED.

Bill Hambleton found his calling early — drawn as a teenager to the silence of a Trappist monastery in the mountains near his home in Utah. His call to the priesthood took him from parish life in Utah to seminary in the Midwest, and finally, to Rome itself. But his formation was shadowed by a darker thread: a charismatic young priest who entered his life as a mentor, and whose guidance slowly curdled into manipulation and abuse — a betrayal that would reverberate across his entire vocational path.

The Sacred and Profane is a testament to the complexity of faith when innocence meets institutional failure, and a powerful witness to how a soul can survive and even thrive when it names what was once unspeakable. In the end, Hambleton does not seek to indict or  absolve, but simply to tell the truth. The result is a memoir of integrity and power, filled with tension, grace, and hard-won clarity.  

…This book…insists that an institution's claim to serve the truth means nothing if it cannot survive being told the truth about itself. This is a rare and necessary book — not an attack on the Church, but a demand that it live up to what it says it is." - Dr. John A.Nagl, LTC, Center for New American Security

BILL HAMBLETON was born into a devout Catholic family and raised in Utah. He earned a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of San Francisco, where his dissertation explored the formation of Catholic identity.

Over a thirty-year career, Hambleton has led independent Catholic schools around the country, shaped by the De La Salle, Dominican, and Holy Child traditions. He is currently Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, La Cañada Flintridge. He is the recipient of the 2011 Secondary Education Award from the National Catholic Educational Association and the 2013 LaSallian Medal from La Salle Academy, New York.

His writing is shaped by the contemplative tradition of the Trappist monastic order, by Ignatian spiritual direction, and by Dominican truth-seeking. The Sacred and Profane grows out of that formation — an exploration of faith, memory, institutional life, and the complexities of belonging within the Catholic Church. He lives in Southern California with his wife and daughter. 

SETH BASS, veteran screenwriter and entertainment executive, has a passion for storytelling and is a champion of stories about real people. Seth and his wife Linda live in Glendale, CA. They sent their three kids to wonderful, local independent schools. They have two dogs, two tortoises, a guinea pig, and are just about to become empty-nesters.