Wandering, unconnected priests are usually up to no good.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Jeff Anderson, said the priest was ordained in the Diocese of Tarno in Poland in 1976. He served at St. Stanislaus parish in Utica, N.Y., in 1977 and at St. Mary’s parish in Reading, Pa., from 1978 to 1980.

A spokeswoman for the Milwaukee archdiocese said Przybylo lived in Milwaukee in 1981 but did not have permission to celebrate mass there. His whereabouts in the five years prior to 1987, when he began his assignment at Five Holy Martyrs, are unclear. He stayed there until 1991 and served at Holy Innocents parish, 743 N. Armour St., in the two years that followed.

The Chicago archdiocese said Przybylo had served as an "extern" rather than as an archdiocesan priest.

Przybylo said that in 1994 he moved to a parish in the Diocese of Madison, Wis., though a spokesman reported there was no record of him working there.

In 1996 he started at Shrine of Christ the King, a conservative Catholic parish that is located within the geographical boundaries of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet but is not recognized by the church.

"Father Przybylo is not connected with the Joliet Diocese in any way," a spokesman for the diocese said in a statement. "Past talks about the shrine being acceptable to the diocese were never fruitful."