1980s To 2007
While in 1983, Quigley North Rector Rev. Thomas Franzman could report that "45% of our seniors headed on to Niles College ," by December 1989, facing declining enrollment and a reduction in the number of Quigley graduates completing studies for the priesthood, the Archdiocese announced the closure of both Quigley North and Quigley South as of June 1990, combining both schools into Archbishop Quigley Seminary at the original downtown site for the 1990 Fall term. For several weeks in early 1990, Quigley students and alumni from both institutions picketed the mansion of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and published a full-page ad in the Chicago Sun-Times, but many of the protesters later joined in supporting the combined Archbishop Quigley Seminary. The Quigley South campus was purchased for the new location of St. Rita High School (originally located at 63rd Street and Claremont Avenue). The reorganized Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary would go on to earn national recognition from US News and World Report in 1999 as one of 96 outstanding high schools in America.
During the period 1984–1993, Quigley graduated an average of 5.5 students per year who completed the remaining eight years leading to ordination. As of the Fall of 2006, with an enrollment of 183 students, Quigley was the largest of the seven remaining preparatory seminaries in the country.
Daily attendance at Mass was required of Quigley students for the greater part of the 20th century, following Cardinal Mundelein's letter of 1916 and John Paul II's 1979 direction quoted above, but the practice declined during the early 90s, when a weekly Mass was instituted. However, when Rev. Peter Sneig was appointed rector in 2001, per Cardinal George's decision, prayer was the centerpiece of Quigley once again. Since academic school year of 2000-01, Mass had been an integral part of spiritual growth, being required three days a week with Monday morning prayer and Friday afternoon prayer to begin and end each week.
The Archdiocese announced on 19 September 2006 that Quigley's doors would be shut at the end of the school year in June 2007. After one year of renovation the site was to become home to the new archdiocesan Pastoral Center, containing the offices of the archbishop's curia and relative church bodies, with a "Quigley Scholars" program being established to support priestly vocations among high school boys.
On 15 June 2007, (the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) Quigley closed its door to students at the end of the 2007 academic year.
Read more about this topic: Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary