Cardinal George disciplines Fr. Michael Pfleger

I was hoping this would happen (via FOX News):

Father Michael Pfleger, the Catholic priest who berated Hillary Clinton from the floor of Barack Obama’s former church, has been removed from his post, at least temporarily, Cardinal Francis George, the Archbishop of Chicago, announced Tuesday.

Pfleger mimicked Clinton while delivering a guest sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ two Sundays ago. He suggested she was shocked that she would be beaten in the Democratic presidential race by a black man.

“To put recent events in some perspective, I have asked Father Michael Pfleger, Pastor of St. Sabina’s Parish, to step back from his obligations there and take leave for a couple of weeks from his pastoral duties, effective today,” Cardinal George said in a statement.

“Fr. Pfleger does not believe this to be the right step at this time. While respecting his disagreement, I have nevertheless asked him to use this opportunity to reflect on his recent statements and actions in the light of the church’s regulations for all Catholic priests. I hope that this period will also be a time away from the public spotlight and for rest and attention to family concerns,” George said, adding that Pfleger is in his prayers.

Read the full story.

Comments

[Joseph R. Wilson]

Father Pfleger has been allowed to create a cult of personality that seems to me a syncretization of Black Liberation Theology and progressive American Catholicism. He has not been well-served by his bishops. Neither he nor the parishioners of St. Sabina "Community" will be edified by his return to pastoral duties there.

[Deacon Harold]

Joseph: I couldn't agree more!

[LJ]

Some have said that Barack Obama would be better off if Father Phleger were to take a sabbatical until mid-November.

I wonder at what seminary he learned his style of homiletics.

[LJ]

I have to ask, does anyone else get a feeling of incongruity watching Fr. Phleger? The mental image that comes to my mind is of middle class suburban white kids in baggy pants, crotch at the knees, skirt length T-shirts and caps at half-crank "yo"-ing their way down the street.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I suppose Jeremiah Wright is pleased. Maybe I'm a purist, but I don't think Fr. Pheleger quite cuts it. The original is always better. However, to his credit, he has adapted to the Chicago inner-city culture. Perhaps Cardinal George may see this as "inculturation" gone just a little overboard.

[Ed Peters]

'bout time.

LJ, easy on the sems. first, P was ordained 30 years ago, so.....second, it's pretty obvious that if P had learned his style at sem, there'd be dozens of guys as reckless as he is. and there ain't. over 30 decades, they tend to self-neutralize. that P hasn't, ...yet..., suggests he's an oddball for reasons having little to do with his sem formation.

[Ed Peters]

hmmmm. i could have said, 3 decades, or 30 years, but not 30 decades.

i nominate Carl for official designated post-editor. make us look good, Carl, or at least, less dumb.

[Bernie]

This priest is a disgrace. When are we Catholic's going to pray the Holy Mass as Roman Catholic's rather than black,hispanic or any other race and this includes halloween masses and puppet masses. Just seeing this priest's so called mass is a disgrace.

[Dan Deeny]

Thank you for posting this. We should pray for Father Pfleger; he seems to have gone off the rails. Back in the Thirties we had a priest like this named Father Coughlin. It is a pity that Father Pfleger hasn't built schools in his neighborhood. This would be patient, enduring, Catholic action: more difficult than giving raucous homilies. I hope he comes back and starts a building program that brings good Catholic schools to the school children of Chicago. The need is great.

[mark]

i read about this priest and saw him on youtube and i was totally mortified. how does a priest get so far out into left field? and who allows this to happen? i live in an iowa diocese that was the fourth in the nation to declare bankruptcy because of sex abuse. and we're one of the smallest dioceses in the country! how does this happen? and this diocese just allowed the diocese's "university" to grant and honorary doctorate to an outspoken politician who advocates abortion. how do these things happen? who continues to allow it? is it any wonder so many people leave the church? what is the church today?

[Paul M Hupf]

A Catholic Priest in the United States has many more important duties than to ridicule a candidate for an office as important at the Presidency of the United States of America, but more disturbing is Father Pfleger's implicit if not explicit endorsement of Senator Obama. A careful consideration of Senator Obama's remarks particularly, but not only, those made in San Francisco, to an "invitation only group of wealthy donors", gives the impression that he may be a Marxist.