Parishioners Outraged Over Rev. Michael Pfleger's Suspension, Protest At Cardinal George's Mansion

Supporters of Rev. Michael Pfleger protested outside of Cardinal Francis George's Chicago mansion Thursday, outraged that the cardinal decided suspend Pfleger from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The suspension came after Pfleger said he would leave the church rather than be removed from St. Sabina Church, where he has been pastor for more than 30 years. Cardinal Francis George earlier this year offered Pfleger the presidency of a Catholic high school near the church.

"If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish," George wrote in a letter to Pfleger released to the media Wednesday.

Parishioners, neighborhood activists and other supporters of Pfleger say the cardinal should have spoken to the pastor before announcing his suspension to the media.

“He was ambushed,” said Associate Pastor Kimberly Lymore, told the Chicago Sun-Times outside of St. Sabina Thursday, adding that Pfleger has “given his life to this community.”

Community activist Mark Allen, who helped organize Thursday's protest in front of the cardinal's mansion, echoed Lymore's remarks in an email to HuffPost Chicago.

"It was an absolute insult for Father George to have Father Pfleger getting calls from the media notifying him through their questioning," Allen wrote. "Cardinal George should apologize for this 'I GOTCHA' strategy, for Father Pfleger or NO ONE in this kind of delicate position deserves to be awakened by media calls informing him that he was suspended."

The tension between Rev. Pfleger and the cardinal has been brewing for awhile. Earlier this month, Pfleger appeared on the nationally syndicated Tavis Smiley show with Dr. Cornel West, and said the Catholic church needs to rethink some of its positions in order to get out of the "sad state" it's in.

He also said conservative Catholics and the National Rifle Association were to blame for his clash with the cardinal.

"I continue to get in trouble because I believe we ought to be talking about married priests, we ought to be talking about women priests," Pfleger said. "And we ought to open up our eyes to where we came from instead of where we’re now at in the Catholic Church worldwide."

The Chicago Tribune spoke to Dwight Hopkins, a professor of theology at the University of Chicago, who said Pfleger's vocal disobedience likely led to the suspension.

"If a priest disobeys the cardinal, the highest representative up to the pope, they disobey a direct line back to Jesus Christ," Hopkins told the Tribune. "The cardinal is saying that Father Pfleger has removed himself from the Catholic Church because he refuses to obey."

The cardinal said that while he has been suspended from his priestly duties, Pfleger retains the office of pastor while temporarily without permission to function.

Pfleger has gained national attention for his protests on everything from gun violence to drug paraphernalia to Jerry Springer's television show, and he has often appeared with major civil rights leaders.

Pfleger, who is white and runs a largely black parish, also has made racial equality a large part of his mission. He often wears African-style robes during services, and a mural of a black Jesus is behind the altar. Both his adopted sons are black.

It has long appeared he has had a strained relationship with the Chicago Archdiocese, which opposed his decision to adopt children. However, in his letter, George said he has consistently supported Pfleger's work for social justice and admired his passion for ministry.

"Many love and admire you because of your dedication to your people," the cardinal wrote, adding he regretted his public remarks brought him to a moment of crisis that he hopes will quickly pass.

Pfleger's public comments have gotten him in trouble before. In 2008, he was suspended for nearly two weeks after mocking then-Sen. Clinton during her presidential run. Pfleger, who was preaching from the pulpit of President Barack Obama's former Chicago church, pretended he was Clinton crying over "a black man stealing my show." He later apologized.

South Side residents were outspoken about their love for Pfleger Thursday.

"He has supported and been a tremendous priest throughout our neighborhoods and he helped us tremendously," Auburn-Gresham resident Elaine Albert told WBEZ. "And just the thought of him not being here would be very, very bad," Albert said.

Pfleger has yet to comment on the suspension.

WATCH parishioners react to Pfleger's suspension here:

View more videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com.

Comments

[Berlet98]

01:15 AM on 05/02/2011

Father Pfleger, Gay Marriage, College Sadomasochism

FATHER MICHAEL PFLEGER: A year after receiving “a lifetime achievement award” from the Catholic Church, a bizarre award if there ever were one, Father Pfleger has been suspended from his pastoral duties at St. Sabina’s parish.

Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago who had been incredibly indulgent toward the radical, racist Pfleger in the past, had finally had enough of his antics after Pfleger went public with an announcement that he would defy Cardinal George and leave the Church if assigned anywhere but St. Sabina’s. The cardinal saved him the trouble by ousting him from the parish.

Forestalling any Pfleger guff, the cardinal made it clear that Pfleger had caused his own problems and effectively advised the priest that if he wished to cease being a priest and depart he shouldn’t let the church doors hit him in the rear.

See Cardinal George’s letter to Pfleger here http://bit.ly/lr2v0n.

Why it took so long to bounce a priest who is pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage, who is buddies with Revs. Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright, black racist Louis “Calypso Louie” Farrakhan, and Al Sharpton, and who is suspected of serial pedophilia is mystifying. For a summary of Pfleger’s less-than-priestly activities, and the reasons Michelle Malkin characterized him as “Obama’s white cheerleader,” click here: http://bit.ly/iUFEVP

The Church is well rid of him.

GAY MARRIAGE: Another . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4270)

[Ortho Stice]

09:52 AM on 05/01/2011

I feel bad for the people at St. Sabina, but what irritates me even more is that George is using Leo High School as a pawn in this game. I have been a principal. It is a hard, damned job, even for someone with decades of experience in the classroom. For George to assign Pfleger—who has no background in education—to the principalship of a high school is utterly irresponsible. It is almost as bad as, say, making a two-year classroom washout with no administrative experience the "chancellor" of the D.C. public schools or appointing a guy with a B.S. in sociology as the Secretary of Education.

But, I digress.

[FlangeSqueal]

01:02 PM on 05/01/2011

I don't believe the position Pleger was slated for was principal - he was to be the "President," which, as you know, is a largely Roman Catholic honorific handed to a person of stature who would be the official glad-hander, the fund-raiser, the public face of the school.

They are to be found all over the city if you'd only look.

Despite Pfleger's unholy relationship with his mirror, it might have been a good fit - andf it would have allowed him to stay in residence at St. Sabina's and eventually serve as Emeritus Pastor there...but that mirror keeps getting in Pfleger's way, and he thought sounding like a Tough Guy on Tavis Smiley's silly gabfest was more important than the future of St. Sabina's "faith community," and all the work he has done for the past decades.

The man is an ignoramus, and the Church is done with him.

[Ortho Stice]

07:58 PM on 05/01/2011

I was going with the news reports here in Chicago, most of which described his job as "principal." If the position is that of a figurehead, that changes matters quite a bit.

Nevertheless, I don't know that I ever have seen a priest inspire the level of devotion among this parishioners that Pfleger does, a fact made all the more remarkable by the fact that he is a white priest in an almost exclusively African-American parish. I just don't see why George has such a bone to pick with the guy, other than that he feels the need to impose his will.

Is Pfleger an egomaniac? Yeah, probably. But, doesn't molest children, stands up for for noble causes, and serves a parish demographic with which most Catholic priests would be either uncomfortable or ill-equipped.

Leave the guy alone.

[writerjohnny]

08:27 PM on 04/30/2011

Going from the good Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to George was like falling off a cliff into a canyon. Having done some work for the Archdiocese over the years I met both men a number of times. One bitter, cold and definitely a "man of the temple". The other warm, loving and completely a "man of the people". More to the point Father Pfleger is the best priest and the best pastor in the history of the Archdiocese.

[MRJChannahon]

11:25 PM on 04/29/2011

He may as well tack his theses to the door of the Cardinal's Residence since it sounds a bit like what a 21st Century Martin Luther might do.

As a non-Catholic, it seems that the Catholic church does need to evaluate many of its practices, policies and rules that aren't necessarily Christian / Biblical in their basis.

Clearly, they can do what they want, and so can their Parishioners.

[WilliamP]

12:48 PM on 04/29/2011

I'm an atheist. I have never been involved with the Catholic church and have no interest in it. Yet even I am offended that this organization that worked so hard to protect child molesters for years (and possibly centuries) would suspend this guy after he's been so helpful to his community.

[FlangeSqueal]

08:08 PM on 05/01/2011

A) You're a self-identified "atheist"...

B) You've "...never been invloved with the Catholic Church and have no interest in it..."

So, given the above two statements from your own keyboard, why would you think ANYONE would place any value at all on your silly suppositions about the Church, Pfleger's ministry, or anything about this case ?

[WilliamP]

09:16 PM on 05/01/2011

As an outside observer, it seems odd that the church would punish a do-gooder who has done a lot for his community when they have protected people who have done a great deal of harm to children. Still sound silly? Or are you defending the church and it's pedophile-protecting ways?

[frant52]

12:40 PM on 04/29/2011

He took vows, if he no longer wants to abide them, he should quit the priesthood and continue doing the work he chooses as he chooses. He can't and shouldn't have it both ways.

[Dbos]

11:26 AM on 04/29/2011

I guess doing Jesus' work gets you in trouble with the Church pfleger is dangerous to the staid catholic church because he fights for the poor and refuses to stop at the commands of the conservative leadership.

[Paul Conrad]

10:04 AM on 04/29/2011

Help your community and the Catholic church suspends you, do unspeakable things to children and you get a new job in a new city.

[Counterglow]

09:45 AM on 04/29/2011

Pfleger said,"I believe we ought to be talking about married priests, we ought to be talking about women priests," Pfleger said. "And we ought to open up our eyes to where we came from instead of where we’re now at in the Catholic Church worldwide."

No doubt Cardinal George worries about all the choir boys that will go unmolested if the church stopped trying to force its priests to embrace a perverse and unnatural lifestyle.

[blogger x]

08:58 AM on 04/29/2011

They protect pedophi|es and punish community-activist priests...

[Roxee]

07:54 AM on 04/29/2011

Why is he a worshiper of the catholic god. He should come over to the other side, atheists have great humanist ideas too.

[Mister C]

06:56 AM on 04/29/2011

The Catholic Church has been shady to this man for years and Why? Because it's a Minority congregation that doesn't follow the orders of the church, nor do the mo...lest the kids like the others and also the money isn't rolling in like they want too!

[FlangeSqueal]

08:30 PM on 05/01/2011

Wrong.

THIS MAN has been "shady" to the Church for at least thirty years - staying in a ministry that he turned into a personal cult - devoid of Roman Catholic rubrics or traditions and closer to the silly Baptist hootenany mentality than the Sacrifice of the Mass...a title for the services that Pfleger did not even bother to use for his three-hour long political diatribes that inflicted his own opinions on the congregation instead of the biblical lessons prescribed for worship in the Archdiocese.

I find it pathetic that the congregation should resort to the tired, inappropriate terms "minority congregation"......accuse the Cardinal of having a "...plantation mentality..." this kind of reverse racist horseshit has no part in this dialog at all.

Pfleger disobeyed the Cardinal-Archbishop of Chicago, forgot his "faith based community" at St. Sabina's - threw away three decades of work in their behalf - and for what ?

For his silly, egotistical mirror-gazing.

This wanna-be Baptist fraud is about to get his life-long wish.

[Mister C]

05:59 AM on 05/03/2011

And you said wanna-be Baptist fraud...REALLY? What good is The Catholic Church? besides Pomp and Circumstance and molestating chrged priests?...Just asking?

[Howard53545]

05:30 AM on 04/29/2011

Dude, you go where God sends you. Now pack yr bags and step off, or he will call the Swiss Guards

[healthanalyst]

03:13 AM on 04/29/2011

I'm trying to figure out how both of them got their egos into the same room.

[fishy2]

01:25 AM on 04/29/2011

I wonder what would happen if the whole parish left.

[Dbos]

11:47 AM on 04/29/2011

most will

[FlangeSqueal]

08:32 PM on 05/01/2011

Buh bye, pretend Baptists !