Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary was an American seminary preparatory school administered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago for young men considering the priesthood. It closed in 2007, and became the Archbishop Quigley Center in 2008. Catholic New World online edition, "Looking Back, 2008", as accessed 1 April 2009
The school was named by Cardinal George Mundelein in honor of his predecessor in the area, Archbishop James Edward Quigley. Ellen Skerrett, Edward R. Kantowicz, and Steven M. Avella, Catholicism, Chicago Style, Loyola Press, 1993
The school's on-site Chapel of St. James, Friends of the Windows "Welcome to St. James Chapel" tour website. Retrieved 1 September 2007 with stained glass modeled after Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, was dedicated on the 75th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the 25th anniversary of Mundelein's priestly ordination on 10 June 1920. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996.
The Quigley seminaries have educated almost 2,500 priests, Quigley: One Hundred Years of Memories, 1905–2005, Taylor Publishing, Dallas, 2006, pg. 16 two cardinals, Chicago Tribune, "Archdiocese to close historic Quigley Preparatory Seminary", 20 September 2006; per the C. Tribune article, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, attended Quigley for one day over forty-one bishops, Peter Snieg, "Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary: Its mission and issues confronting its existence as a high school seminary", Seminary Journal, 10(2), 2004, pp. 24–35 two Vatican II periti, separate recipients of the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and, in sports, two members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Early history
1900 to 1910 The first minor seminary in Chicago was Cathedral College of the Sacred Heart. When bishop James Quigley was appointed archbishop of Chicago in 1903, the archdiocese had only 417 diocesan priests and 149 religious order priests to serve 252 parishes. Anticipating the need for more priests, Quigley formulated plans for Cathedral College, to be located in the center of Chicago. He recruited Fr Francis Purcell to head the new minor seminary.
Cathedral College followed the European practice of Saturday classes with Thursday as a day off. The college charged no tuition for the first 52 freshmen students. All applicants had to be nominated by their parish priests. The faculty had nine priests, most of whom were Irish or German. The college provided financial aid to indigent students. By 1905, the seminary had 42 students taught by 10 faculty members.
1910 to 1920 Cathedral College quickly grew from one to three buildings. Quigley realized that the archdiocese needed to build a larger minor seminary, but the Cathedral College site was too small for expansion. Edward R. Kantowicz, Corporation Sole: Cardinal Mundelein and Chicago Catholicism, Notre Dame Press, 1983, pg. 102 However, Quigley's failing health prevented him from starting the seminary construction. Prior to his death, Quigley shared his plans for the new seminary with his successor, Auxiliary Bishop George Mundelein from the Diocese of Brooklyn. After becoming archbishop of Chicago in 1916, Mundelein wrote to the priests in the archdiocese regarding the new minor seminary; Edward R. Kantowicz, Corporation Sole: Cardinal Mundelein and Chicago Catholicism, Notre Dame Press, 1983, pg. 10
"It is for this reason that in several of the dioceses of the country, the bishops have established the more modern form of the preparatory seminary, where the young boy selected from among his companions by the pastor or confessor, who discerns in him the probable signs of a vocation, the piety, application and intelligence which is required for the candidate for the holy priesthood, even while remaining in the sacred circle of the home and under the watchful eye of a pious mother, is placed apart and educated with those who only look forward to that same great work in life, the priestly field of labor, keeping daily before his mind the sublime vocation of the priesthood, preserving him pure and pious by constant exhortation, by daily assistance at the Holy Sacrifice and by frequent reception of the sacraments." Letter of George Cardinal Mundelein on feast of Sts. Philip and James, 1916, from Archives of the Archdiocese of Chicago, as listed on the Friends of the Windows website as accessed on 1/10/07Mundelein then described the new minor seminary for the archdiocese;"The buildings are to be in the early French Gothic style of architecture and by reason of the distinct individuality and prominent location, will form a place of interest, not only to visitors, but to all lovers of the City Beautiful. The group will be composed of a main college building, and two ornate wings will be one the chapel, the other the library and gymnasium."
In early 1916, Mundelein purchased land on Rush Street in Chicago for the new minor seminary. Edward R. Kantowicz, Corporation Sole: Cardinal Mundelein and Chicago Catholicism, Notre Dame Press, 1983, pg. 16 Edward R. Kantowicz, Corporation Sole: Cardinal Mundelein and Chicago Catholicism, Notre Dame Press, 1983, pp. 102–3 The groundbreaking ceremony was held in November 1916 and the cornerstone was laid in September 1917. The new minor seminary, named the Quigley Memorial Preparatory Seminary, started classes in September 1918, with Purcell as its rector. Cathedral College was closed. Quigley Seminary was established with a five-year program of study. Like Cathedral College, it was a day school, so that its students "would never lose contact with their heritage, their families, their Church."
1920 to 1930 Enrollment at Quigley grew rapidly, topping over 600 students in 1922 in a facility designed for 500. The archdiocese built a new wing in the Flemish-Gothic style in 1925, raising the seminary's capacity to 500 students.
As rector, Purcell established a school newspaper, The Candle,Reynold Hillenbrand was the student founder and first Candle editor, see University of St. Mary of the Lake Liturgical Institute web page "Reynold Hillenbrand and the Sacred Liturgy: Introduction", as accessed 14 July 2007 and Le Petit Seminaire, the seminary yearbook. He also created the Cathedral Choristers, a boys' choir that sang at Sunday masses at Holy Name Cathedral. Students activities included the catechists, who served at local parishes and the Beadsmen, a student group that prayed the rosary during free time. Basketball was the most popular intramural and interscholastic sport.
1930 to 1940 When Purcell left Quigley in 1931, the Quigley faculty had increased to 42 teachers with a student body of 1,030. Quigley's priest faculty were expected to live in the archdiocese, so as to keep a parish and priestly connection.
Purcell was succeeded as rector in 1931 by Monsignor Philip Francis Mahoney, who resigned due to poor health in 1934. Mundelein then asked the Quigley faculty for their recommendations on a replacement. During the next faculty meeting, Mundelein named Fr Malachy P. Foley as the new rector.
As rector, Foley urged the faculty to earn graduate degrees and regularly met with students to evaluate their classroom performance. According to Koenig's account, Foley "maintained Quigley as a seminary that saw itself as second to no other high school."
On May 18, 1937, speaking to 500 priests at a diocesan conference at Quigley, Mundelein criticized the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. He condemned the Nazi leaders for using the pretext of "immorality" and sexual scandals to attack Catholic religious orders, organizations and schools in Germany. He stated:
The fight is to take the children away from us. If we show no interest in this matter now, if we shrug our shoulders and mutter, 'Maybe there is some truth in it, or maybe it is not our fight;' if we don't back up our Holy Father (Pope Pius XI) when we have a chance, well when our turn comes we, too, will be fighting alone. . . . Perhaps you will ask how it is that a nation of sixty million people, intelligent people, will submit in fear to an alien, an Austrian paperhanger, and a poor one at that I am told, and a few associates like Goebbels and Göring who dictate every move of the people's lives... "Mundelein rips into Hitler for Church attacks", Chicago Tribune, 5/19/1937, pg. 7
In response, Goebbels demanded that the Vatican discipline Mundelein, which it refused to do. Nazi attacks on Catholic institutions intensified and the regime closed 200 Catholic newspapers. Chicago Tribune, 23 May 1937; "Nazis unleash vicious attacks on Roman Catholic Church", Chicago Tribune, 29 May 1937
Mundelein personally recruited Catholic families to send their sons to Quigley. Ellen Skerrett, Edward R. Kantowicz, and Steven M. Avella, Catholicism, Chicago Style, Loyola Press, 1993, pg. 85 In a 1938 speech to a meeting of the Holy Name Society at Holy Name Cathedral, Mundelein said:
Our place is beside the poor, behind the working man. They are our people; they build our churches, they occupy our pews, their children crowd our schools, our priests come from their sons. They look to us for leadership, but they look to us, too, for support. "Cardinal in Chicago calls on Holy Name members to align with Social Justice", The New York Times, 1/3/1938, pg. 7
Wanting to Americanize the many ethnic groups in the archdiocese, Mundelein used Quigley to break down ethnic barriers among the clergy. However, Polish groups did win a concession, requiring Polish students at Quigley to learn the Polish language, a practice that continued until 1960. Edward R. Kantowicz, "Polish Chicago: Survival Through Solidarity", in The Ethnic Frontier: Essays in the history of Group Survival in Chicago and the Midwest, edited by Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A. Jones, Eerdmans, 1977, pg. 204
1940 to 1958 In 1944, Monsignor John W. Schmid, a Quigley alumnus, was named as the seminary's fourth rector. Schmid expanded the language curriculum, sending faculty members to study in Mexico, Canada, and Europe. He also added sciences and physical education to the curriculum. By the early 1950s, the enrollment had grown to 1,300. Schmid began planning for another expansion of Quigley, After Schmid retired in 1955, Cardinal Samuel Stritch named Monsignor Martin M. Howard, another Quigley graduate, as rector on May 18, 1955.
Howard's top priority as rector was curriculum reform. Quigley was still using the five-year minor seminary curriculum with the "Sulpician language-school model" that was started by Purcell 50 years earlier. However, it was inadequate for current seminarians, who needed two years of high school along with the first two years of college. After consultations with Howard and the Quigley faculty, Stritch created a new seminary plan for the archdiocese. It included:
Converting the Quigley Memorial Preparatory Seminary in Chicago from a five-year minor seminary program to a four-year high school seminary program Building a second Quigley high school seminary near Chicago's south suburbs Founding a four-year free-standing college seminary
In the meantime, the archdiocese rented the Ogden School from the Chicago Board of Education as an annex to handle the overflow of Quigley's 1,300 students.
1958 to 1970 Stritch's successor, Cardinal Albert Meyer, continued with the seminary overhaul plan. The archdiocese opened the new seminary high school, Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, at 77th Street and Western Avenue, in 1961, with Howard as its first rector. The new seminary was located on campus that included the Quigley South Chapel of the Sacred Heart. Meyer dedicated Quigley South on September 13, 1962.