Pat Dollard | Young Americans

I am SO glad to finally see this….

Its been coming for a LONG time….

Background:

I grew up in Chicago, Roman Catholic. I know the majority of Catholics there do not like this so called priest. He does not represent the Chicago Catholic communities but rather his self and HIS Political views….

He should hang up his white collar and vestments PERMANENTLY.

Recent Disputes With Cardinal George (ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO)

In February 2003, Pfleger generated controversy by inviting Al Sharpton to speak at a mass during Black History Month celebrations. Cardinal George disapproved of Sharpton’s appearance, due to Sharpton’s support of abortion rights. Sharpton was also a presidential candidate at the time, and archdiocese officials were concerned that having a political candidate speak in church would cause them to lose their tax-exempt status. However, Cardinal George decided that trying to stop Sharpton from coming “would be a futile gesture and a waste of effort”.

In May 2007, Pfleger received criticism for his comments at a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition protest outside a suburban Chicago gun shop. According to the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation, the store, Chuck’s Gun Shop, had sold over 2,000 weapons that were traced to crimes committed between 1996 and 2004. It had been a longtime target of protests by Pfleger and Jesse Jackson. Addressing the owner of the shop, Pfleger announced, “We’re going to find you and snuff you out. Like a rat you’re going to hide. But like a rat, we’re going to catch you and pull you out.” Cardinal George rebuked Pfleger, saying, “Publicly delivering a threat against anyone’s life betrays the civil order and is morally outrageous, especially if this threat came from a priest.” Pfleger responded that he did not intend to use the word “snuff” as a slang term for “kill”, but rather as a substitute for “pull”, as he used later in his statement. Pfleger also called out legislators who accept money from the National Rifle Association.

Of his disagreements with Cardinal George, Pfleger once said, “I can only assume the Cardinal sees my style of ministry to be something he doesn’t agree with. In that sense, he sees me as a thorn. That’s what I’m left to feel like. I don’t revel in that. In fact, it’s very difficult. It’s a very difficult feeling [being] on the fringe, getting public reprimands, public criticisms. I don’t enjoy that at all. [But] my focus right now is to try to continue building up the church. A lot of what we do is [considered] out of the ordinary. That kind of puzzles me. It’s not the church I grew up in. The church then was very involved in justice and civil rights issues.”

From The Archdiocese Of Chicago

STATEMENT OF FRANCIS CARDINAL GEORGE, O.M.I.,
ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO
Friday, May 30, 2008

Statement of Cardinal Francis George concerning remarks of
Fr. Michael Pfleger about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton during
an address at Trinity United Church of Christ on Sunday May 25, 2008

The Catholic Church does not endorse political candidates. Consequently, while a priest must speak to political issues that are also moral, he may not endorse candidates nor engage in partisan campaigning.

Racial issues are both political and moral and are also highly charged. Words can be differently interpreted, but Fr. Pfleger’s remarks about Senator Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack. I regret that deeply.

To avoid months of turmoil in the church, Fr. Pfleger has promised me that he will not enter into campaigning, will not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all catholic priests.

From The Catholic League According to:

The Swamp

The Catholic League - a group dedicated to protecting the free-speech rights of Catholics “whenever and wherever they are threatened” - criticized Barack Obama sharply today for his ties to a Catholic priest who stirred controversy at Obama’s home church last weekend.

At issue is the Rev. Michael Pfleger, an outspoken activist Catholic priest, whom Internet videos caught ridiculing Sen. Hillary Clinton while preaching at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Pfleger mocked Clinton’s tears on the campaign trail and suggested her attitude in the race for the Democratic nomination was “I’m white. I’m entitled.”

Obama repudiated the remarks as “divisive” and “backward-looking.” Pfleger apologized for them in a statement. The pair are longtime friends; as a state lawmaker, Obama steered “earmarked” funds to Pfleger’s church.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue criticized Obama’s relationship with Pfleger, whom he compared to controversial former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

“Senator Obama says he wants to bring people together,” Donohue said in a press release. “Then why does he choose as his clerical friends people like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Pfleger? They are two peas in a pod, both equally divisive, separated only by the color of their skin.”

Here’s the full statement from Donohue:

“Most commentators are already focusing on the inappropriateness of the race-baiting comments by Father Pfleger. More serious is the venue in which he delivered his diatribe and his long-standing ties to Sen. Obama.

“Father Pfleger’s tirade would be inexcusable anywhere, but it is even more offensive when it happens in a church. It does not matter that it was not his own, nor does it matter that it happened in a church that has a record of allowing demagogues to exploit it. When churches become forums for political rallies, both religion and the First Amendment are corrupted.

“Obama and Pfleger are no strangers. Indeed, when Obama was in the state senate in Illinois, he conveniently arranged for Father Pfleger’s St. Sabina’s Church to receive state monies for its social programs. Of course, the guardians of church and state separation said nothing then and they are saying nothing now. That’s because they’re all in the tank for Obama. Just as important, why is it that of all the wonderful Catholic priests in the Chicago Archdiocese, Obama long ago chose Pfleger to hang with? Truth be known, Pfleger has a very troubling history: he has welcomed the anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan to preach in his church; he has hired prostitutes to worship there; he has been arrested for defacing billboards; and he once urged the crowd at an anti-gun rally to hunt down a gun store owner ‘like a rat’ and ’snuff’ him.

“Senator Obama says he wants to bring people together. Then why does he choose as his clerical friends people like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Pfleger? They are two peas in a pod, both equally divisive, separated only by the color of their skin.”