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Sounds good to me. Too bad Pfleger can’t appear on national TV as Obama’s leading supporter.
“In Spite of Cardinal George’s Directions, St. Sabina Website Continues to Spout Political Nonsense”
Hmmm, looks like the time for talk might be coming to an end.
It’s put up or shut up time for Cardinal George. May God give him strength to silence this agent of satan.
§2 They are not to play an active role in political parties or in directing trade unions unless, in the judgement of the competent ecclesiastical authority, this is required for the defence of the rights of the Church or to promote the common good.
Cardinal George has always been too chicken to deal with any problem priests in the archdiocese.
Time for Rome to step in.
This situation is almost unique. Some key points:
Cardinal George is a good, devout and sincere Catholic bishop; he’s not of the Mahony-Skylstad-Brown-Neiderhauer-Vlazny-etc wimpy, leftist ilk.
However, he can’t just kick a— and take names a la Burke or Bruskewitz style, due to a few factors particular to the Chicago archdiocese:
(a) it’s chock-full of gay priests, possibly more than any other in the country, more gays that normal men there.
(b) this is Chicago: town of graft, corruption, bribery, threats. It’s quite possible the Cardinal has not had *complete* freedom to exercise his episcopal authority. Phleger himself has his own bodyguard; he’s friends with Wright and Farrakhan; these are mean, tough, rough guys backed by lots of money and political clout too, all inter-connected, including some cohorts in law enforcement. It’s not beyond imagining that Cardinal George has tread lightly due to concern for his own safety or that of his flock or staff.
Cardinal George has actually been taking little steps over past 3 or 4 years to try to get Phleger under control. But the “priest” is powerfully entrenched and outright defiant. He cannot be disciplined in usual ways because (a) he won’t obey; (b) it would create a huge furor in the community, virtually grinding all other matters to a halt in a large archdiocese with lots of fires to be put out.
The fact that Cardinal George issued a formal press release distancing himself from Phleger and chastising him shows the momentum going in the right direction. That is essentially a public declaration of condemnation, not just a private church disciplinary action. I believe the Cardinal has been doing things gradually to try to set the stage to get rid of Phleger when it becomes possible to do so without great risks.