Fr. Matthew Kaderabek, LC, PreK-8th Grade Chaplain

Upon completing his Mechanical Engineering degree at The University of Michigan in 1988, Fr Matthew went active duty in the US Army Corps of Engineers. After stops in Virginia and Georgia to complete Officer Basic and Airborne School, he was assigned as a combat engineer platoon leader and later company executive officer at Ft Devens, Massachusetts. Having met a Legionary of Christ priest in Panama while training at the Jungle Operations Training Center, he began to wonder if God might be calling him to “change armies.” Training soldiers for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm served as an effective, but temporary distraction to making the all-important vocation decision. Fr Matthew definitively hung up his camouflage uniform and donned a black cassock in the summer of 1992, entering the seminary with the Legionaries of Christ in Cheshire, Connecticut. In addition to four years’ preparation in the US, his priestly training took him to Monterrey, Mexico (two years), and Rome, Italy (five years). After obtaining degrees in both philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum, he was ordained in Rome on Christmas Eve, 2003. Prior to coming to Pinecrest, he served as chaplain of East Lake Academy in Lake Forest and Everest Academy in Lemont. Fr. Matthew has been at Pinecrest since the summer of 2013.