As you may know, Chicago has a very large Polish community. Because of that, the Archdiocese of Chicago has been able to recruit many young men from Poland to complete their studies at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, about 30 miles north of Chicago. So this news of a shortage has me baffled.
For over 20 years, my parish in the northwest Chicago suburbs has at least one Polish priest at any time as an associate pastor if not the pastor. And we have never had a shortage of priests. Again, this is kind of baffling.
For some reason they have been unable to recruit local Chicagoans to the seminary. I would love to know the background and determine whether there has been ongoing resistance to denying traditional seminary applicants.