Father Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest, faces an allegation of child sexual abuse dating back more than 40 years and some members of the Black Chicago community have come out in his support.
The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review reported the alleged sex abuse on a minor to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, according to the Catholic News Agency.
A senior pastor at St. Sabina Church on Chicago’s South Side, Pfleger has stepped aside from the parish ministry at the request of Cardinal Blase Cupich.
Cupich announced the “difficult news” in a letter to the congregation.
The church runs a school, St. Sabina Academy, with pre-K through eighth-grade students. The Archdiocese of Chicago has paid millions of dollars in settlements to victims of child sex abuse over the years, according to WBEZ NPR for Chicago.
Pfleger, 71, became a priest in the Chicago Archdiocese in 1975 and pastor of St. Sabina in 1981. He has been one of the city’s most outspoken and politically active faith leaders for decades, ABC7 Chicago reported. On Thursday he led an anti-violence march. He opposes gun violence and supports gun control and women as Catholic priests, according to the Catholic News Agency. In July 2018, Pfleger helped lead a gun violence protest that shut down Chicago’s Dan Ryan Expressway. Attendees included Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill.
Pfleger supporters gathered outside St. Sabina Wednesday, saying they acknowledge the church’s history with sex abuse victims and respect the victim’s right to be heard.
“To the possible one victim, their story deserves to be told,” community activist Ja’Mal Green said. “Everybody has a story. Everybody has a truth. We want to hear it. I think that this investigation needs to happen and this investigation needs to be swift, but think about the harm that’s going to be done in this community now and even when he comes back so we want to make sure that the public knows the type of man that Fr. Pfleger is.”
Rev. Pfleger has an honorary doctorate in divinity given to him by North Park Theological Seminary, according to his bio on the Saint Sabina website. Since 1968, he has lived and ministered in the African-American community on the west and south sides of Chicago.
In December 2004, Ebony Magazine described the Faith Community of Saint Sabina as of one of the churches symbolizing the “New Black Spirituality.” Some of the awards and honors Pfleger has received include “Keeper of the Dream” from Rainbow/Push; Distinguished Service Award from Nation of Islam; “Thurgood Marshall Award” from National Black Prosecutors Association; “Monsignor Egan Social Justice Award” from DePaul University; “I Am A Man Award” from the April 4th Foundation in Memphis, and “Rosa Parks Award” from the SCLC.
In 1981, Pfleger adopted an 8-year-old son, Lamar. In 1992, he adopted another child. In 1997, he became a foster father to Jarvis Franklin, who died in 1998.
“It is crucial that you know nothing is more important than the welfare of the children entrusted to our care,” Cardinal Cupich said in his letter to the congregation.
In front of St. Sabina Church in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood, Green addressed a group of about a dozen people on Wednesday. “Many, many, many people who know him, who’ve been mentored by him, all step forward and say, ‘This is not Father Michael Pfleger — this is not the man that we know.’”
Michael Thomas, an Auburn Gresham resident and supporter who has known Pfleger for 40 years, said, “He’s been a true disciple, a true leader, and a believer in Christ, so I just want to thank him personally for the support that he has shown us — all of us.”
Eric Russell, a Black activist who has worked with Pfleger, said he believes the accusations are “absolutely unfounded” and that Pfleger has “committed his life to people that look like us,” WBEZ reported. Russell called Pfleger “our blue-eyed soul brother … every plague that has plagued our community, (Pfleger) has been on the front line.”
In a Facebook post on Wednesday morning, Pleger addressed the alleged sex abuse.
“I am devastated, hurt and yes, angry, but I am first a person of faith,” Pfleger wrote. “My life is more than a 40 year old accusation, and on that and my faith I will stand.”
