In June, the Archdiocese of Chicago closed Archbishop Quigley High School—the last preparatory or “minor” seminary in Chicago. The school’s mission was to prepare young men for the priesthood. But the school, which was once known as Chicago’s “priest-factory,” had almost entirely stopped producing new priests. In fact, in the last 16 years, just one of Quigley’s graduates has entered ministry.  For Chicago Public Radio, Chris Neary introduces us to the last Quigley priest.

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Ambi: Sound at baptism

At Prince of Peace Church in Lake Villa, Father Pawel Komperda is performing a baptism.

Ambi: Sound at baptism

Komperda is at the start of his career. He’s been on the job for about a year. Komperda is the last of 2,500 hundred priests to graduate from Archbishop Quigley High School. Komperda, who was born in Poland, is 27. But he could pass for college student. With close-cropped hair and gold rimmed glasses, he looks like a priest from Quigley’s heyday in the 1950s. Komperda remembers the first time he saw Quigley.

KOMPERDA: So I was just so excited. I could go to the seminary right after the eighth grade. It was just unbelievable I came there just to sign-up and I got the tour and the person giving the tour said, well, ‘if you’re interested’ and I said ‘if I’m interested?’ I just came to sign-up right now…let’s do it. I don’t care if there’s a hole in the roof. This is the seminary.

Like Komperda, the buildings that made up Archbishop Quigley Seminary look like they’re from another era. Quigley was built in 1917, but because it was designed to look like a French Gothic cathedral, it seems hundreds of years older. The school is just a block from upscale stores at Water Tower Place and across the street from a Bentley Car Dealership. It was an unlikely place to be teaching young men to renounce worldly things. Komperda says that even before Quigley closed, the idea of becoming a priest had become so remote that anyone with an interest would be viewed with suspicion.

KOMPERDA: The benefits of being a priest are not as clearly seen as being doctor or a lawyer, being a successful businessman. It’s almost like if a young person comes in and announces they want to be priest the first thing you will say is ‘what’s wrong with you.’

After closing Quigley, the Archdiocese began a new strategy to recruit priests-what it calls a “multi-faceted” initiative that includes the Website chicagopriest.org. Father Joe Noonan is the head of the initiative. He says that the days of men deciding to be priests at a young age, like Komperda, are over.

NOONAN: I think that younger men just aren’t at a place to discern that this is my life mission by God is and high school didn’t seem to be an age where they were ready to do that anymore.

But the shortage of priests is more than a just a demographic phenomenon. The clergy abuse scandal has made becoming a priest, always a difficult, lengthy process, even more daunting. The close, caring relationship with the laity that draws many priests to the profession has become permanently complicated.

Linda Pieczynski, with the Catholic reform group Call to Action, says that the stigma around priests has not only made it harder for the Catholic Church to recruit priests. It’s also made it harder for Catholics to accept the new priests the Church can recruit.

PIECZYNSKI: When you see a young priest you worry about whether he’s psychologically healthy, whether he’s got some problems that he’s joined the priesthood to work out. There maybe the occasional person who is really together and joins the priesthood. It certainly is possible. It’s just sad for that kind of person that Catholic society as a whole looks at the negative. I imagine it’s very difficult when you have to defend your choices.

Ambi: Sound at baptism

At Prince of Peace, Komperda says he takes every opportunity, especially as a young priest, to make a connection with parishioners. He’s never wanted to do anything else.

KOMPERDA: I don’t remember a day when I didn’t want to be a priest, it was nurtured by my family, it was something that was always in my heart.

Ambi: Komperda flipping through book

After each baptism ceremony, Komperda usually baptizes three or four children at a time. He records the child’s name in a book. He’s already baptized more than 30 children. Over the course of his career, which could span more than 50 years, he’ll baptize thousands more. 

Given these numbers, the last Quigley priest is certain to stay very busy.

For Chicago Public Radio, I’m Chris Neary.