This guy, Fr. Michael Pfleger, has been running a renigade parish for 20 years now. About 3 years ago the Cardinal told him that he was going to be transferred to a different assignment, but Fr. Pfleger said he wouldn’t go and that he would leave the church and take the parish with him if the Cardinal tried to follow through.
The Cardinal went back to his office with his tail between his legs and hasn’t brought up the subject since to my knowledge.
The Cardinal went back to his office with his tail between his legs and hasn’t brought up the subject since to my knowledge.
I honestly pray and feel sorry for Cardinal George for the mess he inherited. He could excommunicate/defrock Snuffy for disobedience and probably for a number of other issues..but it would create quite a media firestorm and probably an uproar. That being said, I could not watch more than a minute of that speech it is so embarrasing as a Catholic.
I’ve heard Cardinal George is in a tough spot, it may be harder for him to make changes than is apparent on the surface. One, his diocese has almost not a single priest that isn’t gay. (Although the Cardinal is not, and is also devout and fairly orthodox.) Two, he was threatened by the mob, and the Chicago police, when he tried to implement certain changes. More I cannot say, but things are really, really ugly in Chicago, and many bad yet influential people are intertwined with one another’s outfits.
I know a bishop who laicized a priest for refusing to accept an assignment.
By giving Cardinal George this ultimatum, Pfleger actually broke his communion with the Church. Any moral theologian will tell you that anyone who says “If you do such and such, I’ll leave the Church!” has already left the Church. It’s sort of like those who stood at the foot of the Cross and said, “If you come down, we will believe.” Belief with conditions is not belief.