Pfleger Suspended

From WBEZ:

The head of the Archdiocese of Chicago has suspended an outspoken South Side pastor…

…Father Michael Pfleger reportedly had threatened to quit the Catholic Church if he was made to take an assignment running a Catholic school and leave St. Sabina Catholic Church, where he’s served for three decades.

…In a letter released Wednesday, Cardinal Francis George said that violated Pfleger’s vows to obey.

The Cardinal said, “If that truly is your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church, and therefore are not able to pastor a Catholic church.”

I had thought it odd that Pfleger was permitted to stay on after his outrageous remarks regarding Hillary Clinton in 2008 – that plus the fact that he repeatedly spoke at Wright’s racist, anti-American church gave me to believe that whatever else Pfleger was, “Catholic priest” didn’t really describe it.

It repeatedly astounds me how people can get themselves wrapped up like this.  The Catholic Church is not a debating society – it is the vehicle of God’s truth.  You can’t have people flying off on their own tangent because they think it is the way it should be – you either are a Catholic, or you’re not.  No one puts a gun to anyone’s head and forces them to be Catholic.  It is a purely voluntary organization.  Anyone who sits down and thinks about it realizes that the choice is always before us – be, or don’t be.

Pfleger appears to be one of those sad specimens who started believing his own press releases.  Even the news report claims he fought against racism – but how one can square that with the rank, nauseating racism of Wright is beyond me.  But Pfleger got applause and he got positive press and he was famous…and that, it seems, became far more important than preaching God’s word.

Hopefully now he will retire for a bit and pray about what has happened.  All can be made right if he’ll just admit error and get back to his calling.  Or, he can quit in a snit, form himself some screwball, heretical denomination and fall further and further away from truth.  You just watch – if he steps finally away from the Church, he’ll suddenly find all sorts of good things to say about abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia.  Rapid descent builds momentum quite rapidly – slip off the pedestal of truth and you fall very fast.  It doesn’t have to come to that…and as millions of us Catholics are doing our Divine Mercy novena this week, it would be good to remember Pfleger in these prayers…perhaps he still can be moved.

HAT TIP:  Lisa Graas

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