Free Republic

“Father Pfleger lobbies against concealed weapons law,” WBEZ91.5 reports. Illinois is the only state that doesn't allow carrying concealed weapons. Father Michael Pfleger is pushing to keep it that way in Illinois, and lobbying against the national effort, too. In order to do so, Pfleger, nicknamed “Snuffy” at The War on Guns blog for urging an indignant mob of his followers to “snuff out” a gun shop owner, “held a press event” at St. Sabina Church. In spite of the Church’s tax exempt status, it would seem. As a registered 501(c)(3) public charity: The organization will not, as a substantial...

Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy told parishoners at Saint Sabina Church earlier this month that the easy availability of guns in the United States is the extension of a tradition of "government-sponsored racism" that began with slavery and Jim Crow. McCarthy -— like many urban police officials an advocate of strict gun control -- was speaking at a liberal, activist church whose priest, Father Michael Pfleger, drew national attention for mocking Hillary Clinton in 2008. "This is sensitive. You know, because everybody’s afraid of race. Have you noticed that? Everybody’s afraid of race," McCarthy, a former New York and Newark...

Rev. Michael Pfleger CHICAGO, May 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Chicago priest famous for supporting pro-abortion candidate Obama has been restored to his parish for now after apologizing for remarks construed as a threat to leave the Catholic Church. Rev. Michael Pfleger was suspended by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago on April 27 after the priest said he would prefer to leave the Catholic Church than his parish, Saint Sabina, from which he was to be transitioned to nearby Leo Catholic High School. “If my remarks in a radio interview seemed to be a threat to leave the priesthood, I...

Ending a weeks-long standoff, Cardinal Francis George lifted his suspension of the Rev. Michael Pfleger on Friday after the two men met and Pfleger apologized for statements the cardinal took as a threat to leave the priesthood. Both men issued simultaneous statements, with Pfleger saying he would deliver a transition plan by Dec. 1 for St. Sabina Catholic Church, the South Side parish he has served for nearly 30 years. But neither statement clarified how long Pfleger might remain at the parish. For now, he'll be back in the pulpit for the 11:15 a.m. Mass on Sunday. It was George's...

The Rev. Michael Pfleger said Tuesday in a meeting with parishioners that if he is not reinstated as pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church by this weekend, he will begin to preach at other churches. In his first in-depth public remarks about his suspension by Cardinal Francis George, Pfleger told a group of about 150 people that he has received numerous offers to preach from churches throughout the city and the country and needs to get back to preaching. He did not specify at what churches he might speak or their denominations. Still, Pfleger insisted that the only way he...

I was going to start this column with a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas warning against obedience to church superiors “in all things.” But I am neither a theologian nor a Catholic, so I’d better leave debates about religious dogma to those who know it better than I. What I do know something about are the problems facing Chicago neighborhoods. Crime. Unemployment. Drugs. I have been writing about those things, or more accurately their consequences, for more than three decades now. And that’s why I understand a little bit about the battles that have been fought by Michael Pfleger, the...

Not used to being sidelined, the Rev. Michael Pfleger on Sunday peeked from behind an open door behind the altar and gazed on as Mass went on without him. It was the first Sunday service held at St. Sabina Catholic Church since Cardinal Francis George suspended Pfleger last week for threatening to leave the Roman Catholic Church if he is forced to become the president of Leo Catholic High School. The Rev. Thulani Magwaza, associate pastor at St. Sabina and now administrator of the parish, led the Sunday service, which focused on youth. He prayed for Pfleger and sang his...

A few years ago, in a fit of concern that my two sons were not being academically challenged by their neighborhood public school, my husband and I forked over the big bucks to enroll them in a Roman Catholic school much like the one I attended as a child. Talk about culture clash. My two sons came home complaining about the exact same ideologies that had vexed me so deeply during my eight years as a Catholic schoolgirl. It seemed like every dinnertime was exhausted by long explanations about the historical context of the religious beliefs they were taught and...

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...

Church leaders from the St. Sabina parish have called for a rally in front of Cardinal Francis George's mansion this morning to protest the removal of their pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger. "Please spread the word," the parish leaders say in a posting on a website in Pfleger's name. A secretary at the church said this morning that the rally will include a news conference at the cardinal's home at 1555 N. State Parkway. On Wednesday, the tension that has simmered for decades between Pfleger and the Archdiocese of Chicago came to a head when George suspended the outspoken priest...

Via Chicago Tribune, Cardinal George is quoted: “If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish,” George wrote in a letter dated today. “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,” the cardinal continued. “Breaking either promise destroys his vocation and wounds the Church. Link to the Chicago Tribune article: Chicago Breaking News: Cardinal George Suspends Father Michael Pfleger

Citing what he called threats from the Rev. Michael Pfleger to leave the church, Cardinal Francis George has removed the outspoken priest from St. Sabina parish and has suspended his "sacramental faculties as a priest." Pfleger had publicly feuded with the cardinal about possibly being reassigned to Leo High School, telling a radio show recently that he would look outside the Catholic church if offered no other choice. "If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish," George wrote in a letter dated today. "A Catholic...

Father Michael Pfleger, the bombastic Obama supporting Chicago priest, recently made some very disturbing comments that call into question his willingness to stay in the Church. You might remember Fr. Pfleger from his outrageous comments about Hillary Clinton. Fr. Pfleger has also advocated the ordination of women from the altar, had Al Sharpton speak during Mass from the altar while he was running for President, once threatened to “snuff out” a gun shop owner, and flew the American flag upside down outside the Church in protest of street violence. But recently, according to news reports, Cardinal Francis George asked Fr....

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the embattled pastor of Chicago's St. Sabina Catholic Church, told radio show hosts Tavis Smiley and Cornel West this weekend that he would look outside the Catholic Church if offered no other choice but to work at a Catholic high school. Pfleger also said on the "Smiley & West" public radio program that he had been banned from speaking at events in the archdiocese and blamed pressure from conservative Catholics and the National Rifle Association for his most recent clash with Chicago's Cardinal Francis George.

The embattled pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church told radio show hosts Tavis Smiley and Cornel West this weekend that he would look outside the Catholic Church if offered no other choice but to work at a Catholic high school. The Rev. Michael Pfleger also said on the “Smiley & West” public radio program that he had been banned from speaking at events in the archdiocese and blamed pressure from conservative Catholics and the National Rifle Association for his most recent clash with Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George. “I want to try to stay in the Catholic Church,” Pfleger said....

With his future at St. Sabina Catholic Church in doubt, a tired-sounding Rev. Michael Pfleger stood in front of his parish Sunday and asked for its prayers. Gone was the bravado and showmanship that fueled his earlier homily, in which the city’s best-known priest dramatically stated his desire to stay at the South Side church. And gone, too, were the television cameras that captured the congregation erupting in cheers after his announcement. “We keep going through this, and it has been very painful,” he said. “Spiritually, I'm good, but emotionally, I'm very stretched.” Pfleger told the parish that he had...

First, it was Father Jenkins openly defying the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (of which Chicago's Cardinal Francis George is president) by letting our 100% pro-abortion President of the United States, Barack Obama, give the commencement speech and being awarded an "honorary" degree from the country's "flagship Catholic university," the University of Notre Dame. Second, it was Cardinal George awarding his controversial priest, Father Michael "Flim-Flam" Pfleger, a Lifetime Achievement Award shortly after Rev. Pfleger denounced the Catholic doctrine of the priesthood during his Easter Sunday sermon. And, after these disasterous doctrinal abuses, it's time the Catholic Special Forces take...

Obama's longtime friend and campaign surrogate was rebuked by the Cardinal for threatening this man's life.

Nobody expected Saturday's Operation PUSH protest at Chuck's Gun Shop & Range to be anything other than a circus of the bizarre. However, nobody anticipated that an address by a Chicago priest would include a call for the murder of a suburban gun shop owner and legislators who oppose gun control. During an address at an anti-gun rally in front of Chuck's, Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina's Church, exhorted the crowd to "drag" shop owner, John Riggio, from his shop "like a rat" and "snuff" him. Rev. Pfleger went on to tell the crowd that legislators that vote...

the mob of people that gathered in front of Chuck's Gun Shop, in Riverdale, Illinois, to complain about lawful sales of firearms. thanks to the Illinois State Rifle Association, now I can back it up. One of the counter-protesters at Chuck's Saturday recorded Pfleger's hate speech, in which he called for the murder ("snuffing out," in his words) of John Riggio (owner of Chuck's Gun Shop) and pro-rights legislators. So much for "Thou shalt not kill," eh? Clearly, the civilian disarmament lobby is the farthest thing from being an "anti-violence" movement, as it purports to be. Apparently Pfleger has gotten...