Rev. Derek Swanson

• Pastor
• St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church

Fr. Derek Swanson, C.M., is a priest with the Congregation of the Mission, commonly called the 'Vincentians', a Catholic religious community founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1625. Fr. Derek grew up in Sharon Springs, Kansas, and graduated from the University of Kansas with an undergraduate degree in Music Therapy in 1995. After an internship with the VA Hospital in Topeka, Kansas, he joined the Vincentian religious community. Following his Novitiate in Philadelphia, Fr. Derek studied at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated with a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Theology in 2003. Fr. Derek was ordained a priest in 2003 at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Chicago and was then stationed in Cape Girardeau, Missouri for three years. In 2006, he was sent back to school at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, and achieved a Licentiate degree in Missiology with an emphasis in Interreligious Dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Upon his return to the United States of America in 2012, he was stationed in parish ministry in the western half of the United States: Chicago; Evansville, IN; Patterson, CA; Neosho & Noel, MO; Los Angeles, CA; Dallas, TX. Two years ago, Fr. Derek moved from Holy Trinity parish in Dallas, Texas, to serve as pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Chicago.