The day my column appeared last week, criticizing the Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced they were closing my high school. I’m sure it was just a coincidence.
But it was more than coincidental that I received a fundraising appeal from Quigley Preparatory Seminary just two weeks before the announced closing. How’s that for ethical behavior? Chump that I am, I sent them $50.
I intend to ask for a refund.
As a proud graduate of Quigley North High School, class of 1970, I can’t help but mourn the closure of the place where I spent four of the best years of my life.
Forty years ago this September, I arrived for my first day of school and couldn’t help noticing a somewhat more secular institution-Whiskey A Go-Go-directly across the street. Johnny Rivers was the featured act. I liked Johnny Rivers, so I figured they couldn’t be all bad, but most of Rush Street was pretty sleazy in 1966, mostly strip joints with some pretty provocative “teasers” out front, not that I noticed. Quigley’s gothic architecture stood out like a sacred thumb on that street of sin.
Four years later, the world had changed quite a bit, you may recall, and so had we. In the interim, I received a terrific liberal arts education and an even better education in values. As a natural born idealist, I thrived at Quigley.
So did many others. Most of us did not go on to become priests. My class produced far more lawyers, in fact-idealistic lawyers, I hope.
As we fanned out into society, we brought our values with us. Most ex-seminarians I meet have a strong sense of mission and ministry. You may be familiar with some of them.
Phil Rock (Quigley class of 1956), for instance, former state senate president, is still involved in Democratic politics. Greg Peters, who just retired as Village of Oak Park finance director, was a classmate of mine at Quigley. Ed Kras, another classmate (albeit at rival Quigley South) is chief engineer in the Building & Grounds Dept. at Oak Park and River Forest High School. Bob Cullen, a pediatrician at Children’s Memorial, was two years behind me. Mike Roberts, who was two years ahead of me (and grew up in Oak Park), became president of McDonald’s until a recent corporate shakeup. Ray Kizelevicus teaches history at St. Ignatius High School. Ed Zotti, who grew up in the area, was (and may still be) Cecil Adams in the Chicago Reader. Other ex-seminarians who live here include Jim Bowman, who writes a column for us (an ex-Jesuit and blogger extraordinaire); my doctor, Steve Humowiecki (also an ex-priest); and Marty Berg, marketing and communications director for the Community Investment Corporation, a group of do-gooders on the West Side, which is headed by ex-priest John Pritscher (formerly at Ascension) and includes ex-seminarians Matt Greene (another Quigley classmate) and Mike Bielawa (another Oak Parker).
I’m sure I’ve overlooked quite a few. You never know where you’re going to find an ex-seminarian, many of whom graduated from Quigley.
The archdiocese decided to shut the school because it isn’t producing many priests, has a million-dollar deficit (meaning the archdiocese has to subsidize it), and enrollment is dropping. A lot of people will say it’s a shame, but it really wasn’t fulfilling its mission as a seminary, so that’s life.
But Quigley has always been more successful as a service/leadership academy than as a seminary. They have been “seeding” (Latin root of the word “seminarian”) the Chicago area with mission-minded grads for decades. It’s too bad the archdiocese doesn’t recognize that a seminary/service/leadership hybrid school serves the Church’s overall best interests, even if highly subsidized. Quigley was subsidized in my era, too.
It no longer works as a seminary because priesthood no longer works. As long as the Catholic Church refuses to ordain women and married men, the numbers will continue to drop, and what kid in his right mind nowadays would consider priesthood when all he has to look forward to is being lonely, overworked and undervalued?
The archdiocese will say they’re closing the school because they need to be realistic.
Funny, I’ve been thinking the Catholic Church needs to start being more idealistic.