Posted on 06/08/2007 6:01:32 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Cardinal Francis George has taken an unusual step: issuing a statement about the Archdiocese of Chicago’s activist priest, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, for comments he made at an anti-gun rally.
It is the latest episode in longstanding tensions between George and Pfleger, who have clashed over everything from doctrine to politics.
Pfleger said Thursday, “I thought things were getting better.”
The cardinal said in his statement: “Publicly delivering a threat against anyone’s life betrays the civil order and is morally outrageous, especially if this threat came from a priest.”
But Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina parish, said he didn’t make a threat, and that no one from the archdiocese contacted him about the May 26 rally outside of Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, run by John Riggio.
“We’re going to snuff out John Riggio,” Pfleger told the estimated 200 people at the rally. “We’re going to snuff out legislators that are voting against our gun laws.”
What did he mean by ‘snuff’? Pfleger said he didn’t know the word “snuff” was slang for “killing.”
“Police were there. Reporters were there. No one understood me as calling for murder,” he said. “I was talking about exposing the gun shop owners and legislators who support them.”
Riggio said he’s considering legal action and referred the Sun-Times to his attorney, William Howard of Chicago. Howard called Pfleger’s statements “alarming” and “slanderous.”
“John Riggio is selling a legal product in a legal way,” he said. “They made it sound at the rally that he’s doing all of these horrible things. Well, he’s not.”
Three days after the rally, the Illinois State Rifle Association issued a press release headlined, “Chicago Priest Calls for Murder of Gun Shop Owner.” The leader of the association said he was writing to the archdiocese for an apology.
Since then, the archdiocese and the priest said they’ve been deluged with complaints.
The cardinal said that it “was up to civil authorities” to determine whether a threat was made.
Riverdale police called the rally “peaceful” and said no investigation was warranted.
Cardinal’s actions confuse priests The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who also spoke at the rally, said gun associations were twisting Pfleger’s use of the word “snuff” to stifle his activism and divert attention from the issue of gun violence.
Several of the archdiocese’s priests said privately they were baffled by the cardinal’s statement. His spokeswoman, Colleen Dolan, said the cardinal wasn’t bowing to pressure from members of gun associations.
Talking tough
What Pfleger said:
* About John Riggio of Chuck's Gun Shop:
"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."
* More "snuff":
"We're going to snuff out John Riggio. We're going to snuff out legislators that are voting against our gun laws.We're coming for you because we're not going to sit idly."
* About legislators and National Rifle Association:
"We will embarrass every legislator that takes money from you. We will call them out by name, by district. We will expose you, legislators."
* On battling gun violence:
"Keep on fighting, people."
Source: Illinois State Rifle Association
shogan@suntimes.com
RC PING
He risks his church's 501c3 tax status by engaging the advocacy for/against a party/candidate/piece of pending legislation.
Great article, thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
This a.m. is the first time I heard of the Archbishop rebuking Pfleger. I did a search using ‘Pfleger’ and didn’t find anything recent; how was it posted before?
Those of us in parishes adjacent and close to St. Sabina are highly pissed by Father Flaky’s antics. It makes us all look bad.
“We’re going to snuff out John Riggio. We’re going to snuff out legislators that are voting against our gun laws.We’re coming for you because we’re not going to sit idly.”
I’m trying to figure out which one of these other definitions for the word “snuff” he meant, considering the context of what was going on at the time. Anyone else got a clue?
Definitions of snuff on the Web:
* the charred portion of a candlewick
* a pinch of smokeless tobacco inhaled at a single time
* sniff or smell inquiringly
* finely powdered tobacco for sniffing up the nose
* snuff colored; of a greyish to yellowish brown
* inhale audibly through the nose; “snuff coke”
* sniff: sensing an odor by inhaling through the nose
“Snuff,” of course, is what an alter server does to a candle flame: he puts it out. It certainly has the meaning of “kill” on the streets, and Pfleger, who loves showing off his street lingo persistently, absolutely must know that.
But let’s suppose that the word was ambiguous; that “snuff” could mean to extinguish Riggio’s career, not Riggio himself. Oh, but wait: “But like a rat, we’re going to catch you and pull you out.” Does one normally “pull a rat out” when one catches a rat? No, Pfleger is plainly inciting an angry mob to commit violence.
Pfleger has headed an inner-city parish virtually all his pastoral life and he didn't know "snuff" meant to kill? Has he had no contact with the youth of his parish?
It’d be breaking news if the Archbishop actually did anything but sit on his fat ass while his priests commit every sort of abomination.
Chicago is America’s second largest diocese, and thirty years ago was home to the most priestly ordinations in all of America, by far. Religious orders from around the nation sent their priests to Chicago for training.
Last year, there were 17 ordinations in Chicago. One was from the United States.
What did he mean by ‘snuff’? Pfleger said he didn’t know the word “snuff” was slang for “killing.”
Depends what is is.
The man is either lying or he's a fool.
CHICAGOLAND PING
Yes, Jesse, just like the Jewish run media keeps using the term "hymie" to stifle your activism and divert attention from the diamond trade.
Egads, what a maroon.
He knows exactly what it means when someone says that they are going to "drag him out into the street and snuff him."
BTW - I used to live on the South Side of Chicago and I've been to his church and I've seen his "vibrant minority congregation."
About 50-100 people at the main Sunday Mass.
He markets himself as a star evangelizer for the Church in the "urban community" - which is how he keeps his job, his big empty parish and his huge rectory.
Cardinal George needs to grow a pair and take his faculties.
Oh, please...
Your snap at the Cardinal is uncalled for. The article states that Cardinal George rebuked Fr. Pfleger for the offensive comments, in what sounds like a judicious use of ecclesiastical power.
JBP
Mr Dangus, did you read that the (rather thin) Cardinal rebuked Fr. Pfleger?
Your blanket condemnation of the Cardinal is as vile as the statements by Fr. Pfleger himself.
JBP
Defrock him. He’s not a priest. He’s a politician hiding behind a collar.
Hardly.
When a priest makes death threats, his ordinary should move to suspend his faculties indefinitely - until he earns the right to use them again.
We're not the Democrats.
OooOOoo, he “rebuked” him. How about inhibiting him and reassigning him to cleaning the toilets at a convent?
Dangus,
You can suggest as you like, but unless you are the Cardinal, you are not making these decisions.
There is a cannonical process here, rather than insultung the very people trying to remedy the problem, why not encourage the process to work? Call up the Vicar General and tell him to throw the book at Pfleger..but there is no need to be insulting.
JBP
Can’t you at least agree that in an era when priests wear their open defiance of Rome and their bishop as badges of honor that a rebuke is no action at all? Here we have a priest who has routinely offered invalid masses and invited pagans like Louis Farakkhan to offer homilies actually calling for murder, and all the Cardinal can do is express disagreement?
STATEMENT OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO REGARDING REMARKS MADE BY FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER
June 4, 2007
On Saturday, May 26, 2007, during an anti-gun rally at a Riverdale gun shop, Fr. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina parish, reportedly made aggressive and inappropriate statements threatening the store’s owner.
If the comments reported are accurate, and a threat was made, it is up to the civil authorities to investigate the matter and determine what if any action should be taken against Fr. Pfleger.
Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, stated, “publicly delivering a threat against anyone’s life betrays the civil order and is morally outrageous, especially if this threat came from a priest. It is first of all up to the civil authorities to determine what threat might have been contained in the remarks attributed to Fr. Michael Pfleger. With that determination, the sponsors of the anti-gun rally and the Archdiocese can better decide how to respond.”
Cardinal George is passing the buck to the civil authorities. Why? St. Thomas a Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, suffered martyrdom in defense of the Church's right to independence in the business of disciplining her errant clergy.
I understand your point, but I do think His Eminence is following Canon Law on this one. An excrutiatingly slow process is one of the dampening effects of radicalism in the Catholic Church.
JBP
Didn’t Hilary speak at St. Sabina a couple weeks ago?
I know Farrakhan did.
As to the substance of the remarks that Michael Fleger made, I think it is fair to say that had a conservative such as Jerry Falwell or Alan Keyes said that “Crypto Marxist liberation theologians like Michael Fleger ought to be snuffed for subverting an important element of the Bill of Rights like the Second Amendment,” then the reaction by the mainstream media such as the Chicago Tribune (which entirely omitted mentioning Fleger’s remarks) would not have been that he simply made strong statements against gun-control measures, but that he was presenting a vague or otherwise incitement to murder a specific individual and certain state legislators in front of an impassioned crowd. Had an anti-abortion priest made similar remarks in front of an abortion clinic than we would never hear the end of it. But then there is a double standard with regard to such speech insofar as the mainstream media for liberals with whom they happen to agree. At least he didn’t call for them to be shot. In front of a largely black crowd, he essentially suggested, anyone for lynching? We need separation of Church and Hate....
‘Snuff, everyone. Close this thread and move on.
This guy is a creep and sicko! Anyone who listens to this guy talk for more than 30 seconds can figure out his motives...
Cardinal George BTTT!
BTTT! This is also the priest who is hosting Wright.
"Pfleger was also once a member of the Catholics for Obama Committee"
Time to get on these so-called Catholics. The Cardinal needs to do something fast and reprimand this "priest"
Cardinal George should relieve Father Pfleger of his duties and ban him from the Catholic church. If he does not ban Father Pfleger then the people of Chicago should not financially support the Chicago Catholic churches.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.