Father Michael Pfleger grew up to become a Black leader. He was impressed with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he led a civil rights movement on the southwest side of Marquette Park. King called it one of the most dangerous marches he had ever participated in. White young men, all Pfleger’s friends, and peers perched in the trees and hollered to the marchers. They called them “niggers,” “jungle bunnies,” “monkeys,” and told them to go back home.
Pfleger was appalled as he witnessed classmates, neighbors, and friends in their racist behavior. He was most impressed with King, as he kept on marching. King was hit in the head with a rock and Andrew Young’s car was burned. They kept on marching, in a moment of mob chaotic racism. A lasting impression was made on him. Pfleger became a priest in the Chicago Archdiocese in 1975 and pastor of St. Sabina in 1981.
He followed the footsteps of the late Father James Groppi from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Father George Clements. Both were activist as they fought for justice for racial equality. He became friends with Black Baptist ministers. He became friends with Black leadership, including the Minister Louis Farrakhan. He invited Black intellectuals to his parish, to discuss Black history and contemporary conditions and current issues. He has a real knack of pulling a cross section of people together. He is responsive to most. He began a lecture series with the likes of Harry Belafonte, Spike Lee, Maya Angelou, Travis Smiley, Michael Dyson and Dr. Cornel West. It was free and open to the public.
Father’s leadership at St. Sabina is 40 years strong where he has established a significant following as a go-to person. He speaks to issues affecting the Black community and inequities. His voice is consistent as he addresses crime, joblessness, gun violence, gun shootings and killings in the Black community. His voice has been consistently loud and persistent. He has lead marches about the injustices. If you ever had the chance to experience his pastoring with families who have lost their loved ones, particularly the mothers who have lost their children, you see the tenderness and humanity of a man as the Bible describes how Christians should be.
Father Pfleger is a Catholic priest who sounds like a Baptist minister with all of the nuisances that call for an “Amen” as he preaches. His attraction is not for Catholics only. He has brought together a multi-generational, multi-cultural, mostly Black audience to talk about the matters of the day in a Christian way. He leads the march, following the ways and path of the civil rights movement.
The Cardinals during Pfleger’s tenure have attempted to scold and spank him before. They have always lost. Pfleger just doesn’t act like a priest. He is an activist priest and a praying priest who grew up to become a Black leader as he modeled his ministry after Black males with a Catholic religious base.
The Accusers
Weeks after Father Pfleger was accused of sexually abusing someone nearly five decades ago, along comes two brothers (now 61 and 63) claiming that they were molested by Father Pfleger for years, starting when they 12 and 13 years old. Neither told the other of the molestation at the time of the occurrence. They filed their complaints with the Archdiocese of Chicago within weeks of each other. The brothers live in Texas and their identities are not being made to the public. Via letter, Father Pfleger is removed from his beloved St. Sabina parish by Chicago Cardinal Blasé Cupich during the archdiocese’s investigation.
All of this is very suspicious. The brothers called for a press conference and the Black press isn’t invited? The older brother served in the US Air Force and later became a police officer. He retires and suddenly he remembers his incidents of 50 years ago with Father? He claims he was afraid to come forth. A policeman who has been in the military was afraid to say he was abused by a priest? Really?
The younger brother suffered from substance use disorder for many years and served some jail time. He also wakes up five decades later and remembers he was molested by Father Pfleger as a teenager. He tells the press that he brought the molestation to the light so that he could move on with his life. He sent Pfleger a letter demanding $20,000, thinking if Father Pfleger sent the money, it would be an admission of guilt.
Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune writes in his column on the subject, ” Rev. Michael Pfleger can’t be charged or prosecuted based on the recent claims of two brothers that he sexually abused them when they were minors in the 1970s.
Yes, in 2017 a new Illinois law eliminated the statute of limitations for criminal sexual assault and sexual abuse crimes against children, and a follow-up law two years later also removed the time limits on precutting similar crimes against adults.”
So, in other words, even if Father is guilty, he cannot be prosecuted. So, this is a case of public embarrassment and a case tried in the court of public opinion to shame Father and to perhaps bring him down a notch. This looks like a case of a shakedown from the anonymous brothers.
Father is loved in the Black community and now has come full circle. For Black men, leaders, in particular, there is always the “sex factor” lingering in the background. Just recently in 2021, a documentary on Dr. King and the FBI reveals his extra-marital sex activity in an attempt to tarnish King’s character by J. Edgar Hoover. The late FBI chief was preoccupied with King’s sex life. You can go through history and look at this pattern towards our Black leaders and ministers.
Father Pfleger, after the investigation must address the issue in full, to tell us who these men are and what the real motive is and who might be behind it.
Meanwhile, Father Pfleger remains in tack as a leader in Chicago. He will restore his church with truth and hopefully, he will march on.
Father Michael Pfleger, the white priest who grew up to become a Black leader, now knows that accusations have no respect of persons.
