Posted on 04/28/2011 1:34:10 PM PDT by NYer
Cardinal Francis George has suspended the faculties of Father Michael Pfleger, the controversial pastor of St. Sabina Parish in Chicago, after the priest said that he would rather leave the Church than accept a position as a high school principal.
In an April 27 letter to the priest, Cardinal George recounted that the two were in discussions over whether the priest would leave his pastorate to become president of Leo High School. “You promised to consider what was a proposal, not a demand, even as I urged you to accept it,” the cardinal said.
“That process has now been short-circuited by your remarks on national radio and in local newspapers that you will leave the Catholic Church if you are told to accept an assignment other than as pastor of Saint Sabina Parish,” Cardinal George continued. “If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish. A Catholic priest's inner life is governed by his promises, motivated by faith and love, to live chastely as a celibate man and to obey his bishop. Breaking either promise destroys his vocation and wounds the Church.”
The cardinal added:
Bishops are held responsible for their priests on the assumption that priests obey them. I have consistently supported your work for social justice and admired your passion for ministry. Many love and admire you because of your dedication to your people. Now, however, I am asking you to take a few weeks to pray over your priestly commitments in order to come to mutual agreement on how you understand personally the obligations that make you a member of the Chicago presbyterate and of the Catholic Church.
With this letter, your ministry as pastor of Saint Sabina Parish and your sacramental faculties as a priest of the Archdiocese are suspended. The official rescript will follow, but this suspension permits you to retain the office of pastor while temporarily without permission to function …
Father Pfleger, I deeply regret that your public remarks have brought you to a moment of crisis that I pray will quickly pass. This conflict is not between you and me; it's between you and the Church that ordained you a priest, between you and the faith that introduced you to Christ and gives you the right to preach and pastor in his name. If you now formally leave the Catholic Church and her priesthood, it's your choice and no one else's. You are not a victim of anyone or anything other than your own statements.
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Ping!
Cardinal George — 1
Father Pfleger — 0
Church is better off without that commie.
Checkmate
info. Good news for a change - Though I see why most of us consider the enemies inside the church - including this “bishop” - to be more dangerous than the known socialists outside.
Frankly I'm somewhat shocked they would even let such a man administer a high school.
Best Hope is to Make him Chaplain to the Retirement Home of Infirmed order of Nuns. He is a Priest with No Public Fanfare.
He's sort of a fundraising gladhander type guy with contacts.
Assuming that you'd want this apostate to be doing anything in your diocese, that job would be a pretty good fit.
It would not, however, give Fr. P much scope for his heterodox activities. The Cardinal may well have offered him the position knowing that he would turn it down.
Long past time to have done something about this guy -- his koolaid drinking followers are already raising all sorts of hoorah and attacking the Cardinal quite nastily.
Now he's thoroughly entrenched, with a church full of loyal followers. Cdl George has tried the under-the-radar approach and has even ordered him to take a sabbatical once before -- with no discernible change in Pfleger's activities. In fact, Pfleger has threatened to take his people and go, creating a schism and losing souls in the process. The cardinal has to consider that, too.
The cardinal's action here is not without risk. The followers of the Church of Pfleger are already moving to attack the cardinal and the Church. It will not be pretty.
a remark like that indicates that he cares more about himself than....anything.
Pride goes before __ ________.
I know nothing about Cardinal George, but this has been far, far, far overdue, and I think it reflects poorly on him that he has so long ignored such horrendous abuse. I think the Church suffers often from an idea that response to abuse should be slow, and that is very unfortunate. If a hospital found that a surgeon was drunk on the job day after day nobody would expect them to tell the surgeon, and then wait and see what happened or whether the surgeon amended his behaviour. Everybody would expect, nee demand, immediate action against an incredibly dangerous person. And yet nobody seems to expect this from the Church in regards to such people as Pfleger. Why? This man doesn’t kill people’s bodies like a drunken surgeon, but kills their souls. He leads people into abuse and away from the Lord, and he damages and wounds the very Body of Christ in the process. No, such men are extremely dangerous and people should be protected from them as soon as they reveal themselves, and Pfleger did that long before George became his bishop.
Thanks for pointing that out. I read it as principal. Duh :)
Never Fear.........................reverend wright will give him a daily pulpit!
Father Pfleger has been too big for his britches for a LONG time. I’m glad he finally pushed the Cardinal a little too hard IN PUBLIC, so everyone could see his arrogance.
What is up with the statement, "I have consistently supported your work for social justice and admired your passion for ministry"?
Should we take this to mean that His Eminence would have approved of Pfleger's outrages had he only not gone to the press about his impending move (which, if the letter is right, he asked for in the first place: "Several times in recent years you have told me that you do not want to remain as Pastor of Saint Sabina Parish for the length of your priestly ministry in the Church")
Maybe I'm reading that letter wrong, but that's how it seems to me.
That is called trying to sweeten the pill . . . a (vain) attempt to soothe Fr. Pfleger’s monstrous ego.
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