Father Michael Pfleger follows the priesthood in the tradition of the Baptist ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is an advocate, a personality and an out of the box thinker. He is a leader, not an obedient bureaucrat.
Pfleger was strongly influenced by Dr. King. As a young man, he witnessed the marches for open housing, where he saw his white neighbors, friends and clergy become terrorists as King and other Blacks marched in his then neighborhood of Marquette Park in 1966.
This march, according to King, was the worst of any that he participated in because of the physical abuse. King was hit in the head with a stone.
Protesters' cars were turned over and burned, as was the case with Andrew Young, who was at that time a King aide. Whites climbed trees to call blacks monkeys and niggers and to tell them they would never live next door.
This was Pfleger's introduction to the Civil Rights Movement.
He saw King go undisturbed by the chaos, remaining focused on his goal. King had been hit, but remained unraveled.
It was from this experience that Pfleger decided he wanted to be a priest. He wanted to be about the business of social justice. He committed on that day his life's work to the clergy.
A Man of Action and Advocacy
But Father Pfleger's advocacy has caused constant conflict and irritation with and for the Catholic Church, of which he is a part of, but not of it.
Cardinal Francis George, his superior, has problems with Father. He has been Archbishop for the past 14 years, but retires this year and I think he's determined to take Pfleger with him.
George is a Catholic traditionalist and believes he should be obeyed. Surely the Cardinal finds Pfleger troubling. Pfleger has been at St. Sabina, on Chicago's South Side, for the past 30 years.
It is Catholic tradition to reassign priests every seven years, perhaps after a one-time renewal, so Father is long past his service commitment.
The Cardinal wanted to send Pfleger to St. Leo, a school just blocks away from St. Sabina, that is challenged and which serves African-American youth. But Father refused the position, because he is not an "educator."
He is a priest, a community organizer of the best order. He has stamped out cigarette and liquor ads and stores and gangs in the area.
Cardinal George, last week in a most insulting way, brought in Rev. Andrew Smith to assume "pastoral" duties at St. Sabina while Pfleger is on suspension. Smith is a Black priest, but will never ever fill Father's Pfleger role, and he knows it.
Pfleger has built a church based on activism. He follows Jesus in the name of his challenge and advocacy, and not just ceremony.
Father Pfleger is a change agent. He has demonstrated such with his life's work in the Auburn Gresham community by making it safer, economically viable, with improved housing, and by making his church relevant and involved.
He has extended the church beyond the confines of Catholicism and attracts all. He has expounded and expressed the Black plight and become a national figure with his commentary.
A "Black" role model, Father Pfleger is one of one and more recognized than the Cardinal.
His program in February, where he brings in national figures from all walks of life to lecture, reaches beyond the church and into the larger Chicago community with much acclaim.
Pfleger has been political and usually on the right side of the issue for Black America. He has not cared about being popular, but more about being right. He has challenged and pushed the envelope.
And now in his moment of fire, where are we, as this White man who is not Black has not only stood tall, but sometimes lone?
This priest is not a Black minister, but has accepted "our" clergy tradition as his own and created something special in his priestly protocols. Where are we as a community in support of him?
Good Priest vs. Bad Priests
Cardinal George may be a good right catholic, but he is dead wrong. Pfleger has been critical of the rigidness of the church in not including women in its hierarchy and other ancient, out-of-date practices that have resulted in the Catholics' loss of membership.
The priests are guilty of allowing their pedophilia to get out of control, as it was imposed on children in disgusting ways. Guilty priests who were reassigned and had their negative behavior protected were not severely dealt with and often even ignored.
Sometimes these deviant priests were elevated within the ranks, as opposed to being suspended and permanently dismissed.
Father Pfleger is being punished for his good behavior, while some of the deviant priests were promoted to escape the consequences of their deviancy.
The move is now on Father Michael Pfleger over whether to stay or to leave the Catholic Church.
Personally, I hope he leaves, so that he can start a new church, where a new flock, in addition to the St. Sabina congregation, will gather and where he can have freedom. I would join.
His style is of the kind for the mis-churched and un-churched. Leaving the church would allow full inclusion of his ministry, where we probably would be able to appreciate him more than within the confines and framework of religiosity.
Father Pfleger needs to be free of the Catholic restriction. In a real way, his circumstance is the definition of what is really wrong with the Catholic Church.
Follow Hermene Hartman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Hermene Hartman
Tavis Smiley: Father Pfleger on the Battle With the Catholic Church
Angela Bonavoglia: Father Pfleger's Raging Sexism No Problem for Cardinal George
Michael Pfleger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Faith Community of Saint Sabina
Father Michael Pfleger | Facebook
Michael Pfleger : Michael Pfleger News and Photos - chicagotribune.com
We all would.
Rents an apartment in St. Sabina's Parish and
continues his good work for and with the people of St. Sabina's Parish.
Not only will he be helping his parishioners, but he will becomes a Daily Thorn
for Cardinal George and all of the RC Authoritarians who have forgotten how to live
Christ's teachings.
All the best, Father Pfleger!
I do hope things work out well for Father Pfleger and the good people on
the South Side, especially the parishioners at St. Sabina's.
My local UUC does a lot of great work. Too bad about the delusion, though.
Good Grief!
How has Father Pfleger benefitted?
Does he live in a Mansion?
Does he have a chauffeur driven limo?
NO. That's Cardinal George living the Good LIfe.
Several pedophile priests, worldwide, were made Bishops.
If Pfleger no longer finds Catholicism in line with his beliefs, he's free like all other Americans to choose a new religion. He's also free to try to change Catholicism in his own image, if he prefers, and Catholics are free to reject him.
None of this is any of my business. I'm not acquainted with Pfleger and I'm not a Catholic. So it's not clear to me why Ms. Hartman posted this, a private issue, here in a public forum. Honestly, it sounds like sour grapes, especially when Hartman plays "the pedophilia card".
"Father Pfleger is being punished for his good behavior, while some of the deviant priests were promoted to escape the consequences of their deviancy."
This is entirely consistent when you realize that the main goal of the Catholic Church (and most every other church, too) is to preserve itself as a powerful institution. From your description it sounds like the church doesn't think Pfleger's ministry is orthodox enough; from their view he is harming the church by changing it, so they'll move him where he'll be invisible and powerless to do more harm to the church. That's EXACTLY how they reacted to the sexual abusers. They weren't promoted to benefit the children, but rather to benefit the church.
If you don't like that, Catholicism probably isn't for you.
So he isn't a good fit for their institution. The world is better off with him continuing his work without them.
"I would say that a Church that seeks to be particularly attractive is already on the wrong path, because the Church does not work for her own ends, she does not work to increase numbers and thus power. The Church is at the service of another: she serves, not for herself, not to be a strong body, rather she serves to make the proclamation of Jesus Christ accessible, the great truths and great forces of love, reconciling love that appeared in this figure and that always comes from the presence of Jesus Christ. In this regard, the Church does not seek to be attractive in and of herself, but must be transparent for Jesus Christ and to the extent that she is not out for herself, as a strong and powerful body in the world, that wants power, but is simply the voice of another, she becomes truly transparent for the great figure of Christ and the great truth that he has brought to humanity. The power of love, in this moment one listens, one accepts. The Church should not consider herself, but help to consider the other and she herself must see and speak of the other." - Pope Benedict XVI
Nor do I see the purpose of your quote. I said the church's main goal is to preserve itself as a powerful institution. Bennie agrees All he adds is that the reason the RCC wants this power is so they can use it for God, not because it lets them live like royalty. It's just a coincidence that it does both.
So when the RCC punishes a rebel like Pfleger, or quietly shuffles a pedophile into a less conspicuous job, it's just as I said. Their first goal is to prevent harm to the church. Myself, I think this is because Catholic leaders enjoy their power and prestige. If you want to believe Ratzinger's claim that they're really collecting that power and prestige for the irall-powerful and glorious God, feel free.
By the way, I also have a bridge for sale, are you interested?
But , instead , as a life long conservative Catholic, I pretty much agree with everything written above
"With Christian obedience I shall follow what the Bishops, as authentic doctors and teachers of the faith, declare, or what they, as those who govern the Church, establish.
I shall also faithfully assist the diocesan Bishops, so that the apostolic activity, exercised in the name and by mandate of the Church, may be carried out in communion with the Church."
Is he a man of his word or not?
The "good" God of the NT wants money to be spread out to help. The RCC wants to KEEP the money and KEEP people in perpetual need.
Your failure to recognize his betrayal of the obligations he placed on himself to the Catholic Church and its hierarchy shows that the article in question lacks the honesty to be taken seriously.