Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Suspended Chicago priest sets weekend ultimatum for reinstatement

A Chicago priest who was suspended for comments he made on his transfer to a different parish plans to preach at other churches if he is not reinstated.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Father Michael Pfleger told members of his congregation at St. Sabina Catholic Church that he has received invitations from numerous churches and that he would take up one of these offers by the weekend.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has not issued a statement in response to the ultimatum.

Cardinal Francis George suspended Pfleger on April 27 after the priest said in a radio interview he would likely leave the Catholic Church if he was reassigned.

An activist who has led his congregation since 1981, Pfleger was offered the presidency at Leo Catholic High School, a post the cardinal said would let him continue his advocacy against gun violence and drugs in the black community.

The cardinal informed Pfleger of the suspension in a letter released by the archdiocese. He chastised the priest for comments that “short-circuited” the process to determine whether to proceed with the transfer.

The cardinal said their private conversation about the reassignment was also “misrepresented publicly as an attempt to ‘remove’ him,” a decision only undertaken in cases of sexual or financial offenses.

“I deeply regret that your public remarks have brought you to a moment of crisis that I pray will quickly pass,” the cardinal had said.

“This conflict is not between you and me; it’s between you and the Church that ordained you as a priest… You are not a victim of anyone or anything other than your own statements.”

The leadership of St. Sabina has said the cardinal has “taken out of context” the pastor’s comments on the radio show, and has “misrepresented” Pfleger’s statements on staying at the church. They added that it was the archdiocese who made the discussions public.

“Contrary to what is mentioned in this letter, Fr. Pfleger has said on a number of occasions that he wants to remain in the Catholic Church, but he doesn’t want to stay at St. Sabina for the rest of his life without a plan for succession, because he wants St. Sabina to survive,” the congregation’s leaders had said in a statement.

“The initial release of the information concerning the March 11th meeting apparently came from someone in the Chancery,” they added. 

“It is not Fr. Pfleger or his remarks that has “short-circuited” the process, but rather the Archdiocese who has never honored the St. Sabina transition planning process.”

More than a dozen pastors of 14 black Catholic churches in Chicago have also expressed concern that Pfleger’s removal “will not only harm the people of St. Sabina, but also injure the faith of many committed Catholics, black and white.”

“We understand and support the rules about tenure for pastors. For serious reasons, exceptions can be made to the rules we have crafted,” they wrote in a letter to the cardinal in March.

Pfleger, 52, remains officially the pastor at St. Sabina but he has no priestly functions.

His associate pastor, Father Thulani Magwaza, temporarily serves as church administrator.

A priest at St. Ailbe Parish, Father Andrew Smiths, has been assigned as assistant.