Catholics against Michael Pfleger
Several readers e-mail that a group called Catholic Mothers Against Politics & Hate Being Preached From The Pulpit has set up a petition against race-baiting Rev. Michael Pfleger.
Meantime, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet reports that the Obama campaign told her Pfleger stepped down from “Catholics for Obama” a few weeks ago. She also has reaction from the area’s cardinal:
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said Pfleger stepped down from a ”Catholics for Obama” committee a few weeks ago, but would not say why.
The Clinton campaign at first had no comment, then Thursday evening said Obama did not go far enough in distancing himself from Pfleger. “Divisive and hateful language like that is totally counterproductive in our efforts to bring our party together and have no place at the pulpit or in our politics,” said a statement issued by Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. “We are disappointed that Senator Obama didn’t specifically reject Father Pfleger’s despicable comments about Senator Clinton, and assume he will do so.”
Chicago Sun-Times religion reporter Mike Thomas asked Cardinal Francis George’s office for a reaction, and his spokeswoman, Colleen Dolan said, ”The cardinal has made it clear to Father Pfleger in the past on more than one occasion that it’s inappropriate to speak about political issues from the pulpit and that his own personal opinions are his own personal opinions.”
The campaign of presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain declined comment.
Pfleger is a longtime Obama friend and was in the audience at the National Press Club for that Wright press conference, and when we talked afterward, he realized Wright created a problem for Obama.
I was told Pfleger’s comments stunned some in the Obama camp because they expected him to be more politically savvy — and not take on Clinton, especially at Trinity, of all places.
Uh, where’s the IRS?
***
James Taranto at Best of the Web reminds readers of Pfleger’s tax-subsidized earmarks courtesy of his longtime friend Barack Obama.
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I’m astonished at how both Wright and Pfleger, even though they knew they were under scrutiny, simply could not keep their mouths shut. They’re either trying to sabotage Obama, or they have the impulse control of a toddler.
He’s entitled to his opin…oops, bad choice of words
Hate from the pulpit or the curbside is still hate. The IRS needs to step up and go after these churchs that provide a forum to spread hate. I’m starting my email and advise all of you to do the same. The voice of the people is useless unless we use it.
Uh, isn’t this guy a Catholic?
Wheres the Catholic church in all this? I KNOW they can discipline their priests…
Anyone know a Cardinal?
This man’s behavior is appalling and he should be removed from the priesthood. Hatred like his should not be in any way connected to the Church.
It also seems to me that the media has missed a rather important part of another episode of this church – - how the congregation reacted. There is little doubt that they share his and Rev. Wright’s bigotry and extremist views.
It is frightening to me to hear media pundits actually downplaying this in relation to Obama. There is little doubt that he has and does support such behavior and that his ‘apologies’ are insincere and beyond belif.
It’s not the hate speech. It’s the political content.
From The IRS:
Could it be anymore clearer?
Count me in.
I’ve got a question about Rev. Pfleger–maybe some of you could enlighten me:
Why does he use the honorific “Reverend Dr.”? For a while I didn’t realize he was Catholic because I assumed all Catholic priests were, e.g., “Father Bob” until they were promoted to Bishop, etc. I usually associate “Reverend” with Protestant clergy.
Maybe it’s an attempt to tie himself to the Rev. Dr. MLK?
He also goes by “Pastor” on St. Sabina’s website.
Just wondering.
It seems that Senator, and presumptive Presidential nominee, Barack Obama needs to prove his adherence to the liberal, honored tradition of “separation of church and state” by immediately sponsoring legislation that removes Trinity Church’s tax free status.
Pfleger’s recent performance can be exhibit 1.
Earmarks take on a new meaning with the sails Obama has on the sides of his head.
I’ve been wondering that myself for a while, Michelle.
OK I am waiting on the next video sermon from Louis Farrakhan. “White Folks you owe us”. Followed by Michelle Obama “America has repeatedly raped the black community”….
Next batter up!
Absolutely. He works in a minority district and is a blazen white man. He needs the titles, and in my church we also call the Priest, Pastor, even though it is a Protestant term.
CMAPHBPFP??????? What the hell kind of acronym is CMAPHBPFP??? You can’t even pronounce it, and it doesn’t mean anything anyway. They need something snappy. Don’t they know they’re supposed to figure out the acronym first, and then make the name fit? How about CAMEL (Catholics Against Mean Evil Liberals) for instance?
Silkyinfamous:
Quite clear that hate speech has nothing to do with the IRS going after churches.
The petition is hoping to get 1000 signatures. As of a few minutes ago it has 270.
Hey this guy is really looks like Al Gore dressed up a priest. Same insanity, same body motions, same stupidity.
I believe this is the e-mail for questions/comments/reporting to the IRS for non-profits, including churches, violating the restrictions for injecting themselves into politics
tege.eo.compliance@irs.gov
Sign me up! and txvet2 sign me up for Camel too. The pope warned about prophetic preaching when he was here.
This Hate.
Which leads into this.
So yes, speaking negatively about a candidate at a church is against IRS Rules with concerns to their 501 C 3 status.
The campaign of Jonny Mc (Lesser of Two Evils) had no comment on the race baiting – white priest. None on Wright-Meeks-Farrakhan – M.Obama- and et al either HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
…Johnny Mc…..
Why does the MSM even give this guy the time of day ? According to them, ALL priests are supposed to be pedophiles, remember ?
I would have to agree. Even if you don’t look at it as being “for” Obama, we surely have to see the “opposition” to Clinton aspect of his diatribe.
Silkyinfamous
Yes, Speaking negatively or positively about a candidate is against IRS rules. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with hate speech.
#18–YES! I can’t get over how he looks like a skinny Al Gore! I also get a Lindsey Graham vibe off of him. (”tell the bigots to shut up!”)
Ed Driscoll thinks he acts like Dick Shawn in The Producers.
I’d also describe him as Fred Rogers possessed by Sam Kinnison.
Romeo, I know the Archbishop of Mobile, Oscar Lipscomb, I’ll shoot him a note but I think they’ve found his successor since he’s like 76 now. Can’t hurt though to try.
This Catholic sure isn’t for the person who thinks children are punishments and is a-okay with letting children who are not perfect die.
Someone please send The Pope this video.
If I am a parishioner in this priest church, I’ll be voting with my feet and join another parish, and when a great number of the parishioners will act in the same manner, we have effectively drain this priest coffers and he will definitely take notice of his parishioners displeasure. Preaching to empty pews will be this priest reward if he continues his demagoguery.
Gotta love all these nutballs surfacing. What a collection of spiritually deprived, pathetic excuses for clergy have surrounded BHO for all these years.
That picture looks a lot like algore.
It is is not, but it sure is close…
Do I have to convert to Catholicism before I complain?
or can I complain as a protestant ..
The Archdiocese of Chicago is set to make a statement regarding Fr. Phleger.
I would have signed the petition, but I am not a big fan of care2.org’s practices regarding my email address.
I am sure the Chicago Sun Times is looking for a way to smooth this over and make Obambi come up smelling like roses.
Hope and Change…
Sen. Obama’s explanation and proof that he’s not a Muslim was the last 20 years, he and his family are members of the Trinity Church, which qualifies him a Christian. Thats ONLY 20 YEARS OF HIS LIFE, what was he during his first twenty years, a non-believer or something else? Maybe the FBI or the CIA knows. They kept a dossier and a complete BI check on just anyone of importance, so they should know!
Ewwwww. I hadn’t ever really picture that one, see-dubya, but I can now that you pointed it out. I always thought he looked and acted like a less-chunky Al Gore.
For an excellent read as to the viewpoint of the Church on this issue read this article.
America The National Weekly
Sorry that should have been the National Catholic Weekly….my bad
[quote]The campaign of presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain declined comment.[/quote]
Well, knock me down with a feather…
a gross carbon emitting Al Gore?
If I recall correctly, 501 (c) 3 organizations cannot engage in any sort of political activity.
This regulation however, is rarely enforced by the IRS.
P.S. This guy is not a priest. He’s a political hack. He needs to resign and follow his heart. BTW, do they have altar calls at that “church”?
I just signed the petition and forward the information to the women in my prayer/rosary groups. I pray some thing will be done about this “priest”.
Exactly. Guys like Dobson and the late Rev. Falwell have done it for years with no IRS involvement.
Has anyone seen or heard any of these so called men of god that surround Obama say anything remotely christen? All I’ve heard is secular hatred.
Not “exactly”, Mookie. James Dobson is not a pastor in a church. And, I don’t recall Focus On The Family injecting iteslf into a campaign. Dobson, as an individual, not speaking for the non-profit with which he works, has come out and endorsed candidates. Pflegler is presenting his diatribe from the pulput of Trinity during the “worship service”. There is a difference there.
In all fairness to your post and you, I can’t really speak to the issue of Falwell. I don’t keep track of him on anything. But, I don’t remember him campaigning for or against a candidate form the pulpit or his church endorsing anyone. But, again, I don’t keep up with him much.
Sorry. That’s what I get for typing too fast.
This guy is Example #850 with what went wrong in many Catholic seminaries in the 1960s and 1970s.
Not only was his rant mean-spirited, it was racist. He has adopted the racism of his inner city, black flock. The very fact that Pflegel won’t answer for his support for a guy who is 100% for abortion and infanticide shows you his gospel is Marx, not Mark.
#44 Mookie said:
Then maybe we can forge agreement by using your understanding of Falwell and Dobsons’ violations as an official benchmark, and then sweep all those that meet and/or exceed this benchmark (including black churches)out from under their covers of tax free status?
The use of “reverend” applies to priests in the Catholic Church as well as protestant ministers. It’s just the formal term of address, and is nothing new. If you checked any guide to proper address of officials (i.e., World Book of Facts, Miss Manners, Gregg Reference Manual…) you will see listings of formal address for religious dignitaries.
I signed the petition. This “priest” needs to be defrocked. Now.
Pfleger reminds me as unbalanced as the group of nuns that used to go around and protest against the military back when I was stationed at Peterson AFB. Right before I retired they attacked a static display F-18 at an Air Show with red paint and hammers. I guess every religion has a fringe branch of fanatics that has to make their political statements instead of administering the gossip to their flock. I would love to see the IRS go after all of the political churches that preach hate and intolerance in this country. It is time for each and every one of them to loose their tax free status.
In the Catholic Church a Pastor is a priest in charge of a specific parish.
Also Reverend is an honorific, not a title.
It tends to be newer (and usually non-Catholic) churches which have morphed Reverend into a title, but it is not official doctrine.
Absolutely. I think any church that abuses its tax-exempt status should have it stripped regardless of denomination.
That’s why the ACLU has had so little headway in removing the IRS status of the few rightwing churches or church leaders who supported Republican candidates. If they did the right wing would turn around and slam the multitude of liberal churches who allowed Democratic candidates to speak from their pulpits.
I’m not versed on the entire 501 section of the tax code. I do know that 501(c)3 organizations cannot participate in lobbying or other political activities. Not all churches are 501(c)3 orgs, it is possible there is another designation under the tax code for religious organizations.
Community organizations are almost always a 501(c)3 entity. Here in Chicago, many community organizations are active in politics.
Phleger received a $100K earmark for his community organization.(possibly associated with his church). I’d like to know how that money was(or will be) spent.
Pfleger should be defrocked. The racism and hatred he’s preaching may be mainstream in black churches, but it IS NOT reflective of catholic values.
That man is an embarrassment to the cloth and the legacy of Jesus Christ.
He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion — a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called “too close to infanticide.” In 1997, Obama voted against SB 230, which would have banned partial-birth abortion, & against a 2000 bill banning state funding, in spite of these bills including an exception to save the life of the mother. Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban.
“Mr. Obama, I know you’re a Christian, with a family of your own. So how can you support murdering babies? I will pray for you,” the protester said. “I pray that you have a change of heart.” Neither my mind nor my heart changed that day, nor did they in the days to come. Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.197-8 Oct 1, 2006
Abortions should be legally available in accordance with Roe v. Wade.
Source: 1998 IL State Legislative National Political Awareness Test Jul 2, 1998
Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.
This bill prohibits taking minors across State lines in circumvention of laws requiring the involvement of parents in abortion decisions. Makes an exception for an abortion necessary to save the life of the minor. Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act; Bill S.403 ; vote number 2006-216 on Jul 25, 2006
National Right to Life Committee: Obama scores 0% by the NRLC on abortion issues, placing him at the most extreme edge of pro-abortion votes.
In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion. In 2003, Obama prevented BAIPA from even getting a fair hearing in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee, where Democrat leadership purposefully sent the bill for Obama to kill. In all, BAIPA has been introduced and failed four times in four years in Illinois, thanks in no small part to Barack Obama.
And now Obama has oddly claimed he would not want his daughters to be “punished with a baby” because of a crisis pregnancy — hardly a welcoming attitude toward new life.
As you can see, Obama’s record on abortion is extreme.
Read on…
The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (”The Gospel of Life”) have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. . . . [I]f it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed” (Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]).
The Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, affirmed the clear and constant teaching of the Church that deliberately chosen abortion is objectively immoral. It is not a legitimate moral Choice.
This teaching was cogently reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which referred to abortion as an “abominable crime” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, no. 51); it has been authoritatively explained in the Declaration on Procured Abortion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1974), and has frequently been restated by the Bishops of the United States in various Pastoral Letters (e.g., Human Life in Our Day in 1968, no. 84; To Live in Christ Jesus in 1976, nos. 637-65; The Challenge of Peace in 1983, nos. 286-289), and numerous other statements.
From the Catechism, the core code of the Church:
270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”
The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae ‘by the very commission of the offence’.
How can ANY Catholic in good conscience vote for such a rabid foe of Pro-Life positions, and an extremist when it comes to allowing and even promoting abortion? Abortion is a paramount moral fight for the Catholic Church, and Church doctrine and teachings on this issue are quite clear.
No Catholic in good conscience can back Barak Obama.
Catholics for Obama? Gimme a break – thats about as truthful as “Capitalists for Karl Marx”
Cardinal Francis George has been allowing the the disgusting actions of Pfleger to go on FAR too long. Let him know what you think…
For General Inquiries:
Archdiocese of Chicago
155 E. Superior Street
Chicago, IL 60611
312-751- 8200
Pastoral Center Mailing Address:
Archdiocese of Chicago
P.O. Box 1979
Chicago, IL 60690 – 1979
One would think the good Cardinal would be a tad more aggressive in reigning in his errant disciple. The guy is clearly using the pulpit to make political statements. Recently, the IRS has gotten more aggressive in revoking tax exempt status from religious organizations engaged in political advocacy.
As the issue could effect the ENTIRE Catholic Church in the US and not just one little Chicago parish, perhaps the Cardinal should consider removing him before he puts the Church at risk of becoming a taxpayer in the US. A series of verbal warnings is not going to cut it when the IRS looks at whether advocacy is an institutional and not an isolated problem.
Here in the Chicago area we call him Father Flakey. It’s illegal to own a gun in Chicago so he and Jesse and others picketed a suburban gun store for selling firearms legally. What a foney.
Sounds good to me BrianNY and Mookie. Hell, I say remove tax exempt status for all churches.
pfleger went to seminary with my brother in law. He is absolutely untouchable because the archdiocese doesn’t want him having a hissy fit. He keeps his parish even though every other pastor is moved after a set number of years. He stays because the powers that be in the archdiocese are afraid of him screaming racism. They tried removing him to another parish once and he started his garbage and they backed off. We who live in the Peoples Republic of Chicago are not surprised at whatever this nitwit does. Same with our Mayor, Governor and both U.S. senators. Just business as usual in our 1 party Socialist State of Illinois
Dakine, I agree with you.
If churches paid taxes and had any degree of accountability at all, we might be surprised at what we find. I imagine the justice department would be flooded with fraud cases, as innocent well-intentioned people realize most of their money is being stolen. Thugs like the subject in question wouldn’t be able to hide behind their special status. There are plenty of them on both sides of the political spectrum.
I’m sure the deficit problem would be solved.
And of course then we could stop arguing this silly “separation of church and state” nonsense, and start teaching the bible in schools again, as they did for a couple of hundred years before WWII.
Too bad Pope Benedict seems to have gone deaf when it comes to FlakyPfleger. This embarrassment to the Church needs to go to an isolated and contemplative extended retreat – - say, 50 years?
Pope Benedict needs to act if hsi cardinals will not.
My nuns at St. Mary’s would have had this guy Pflegler washing blackboards for weeks on end.
txvet2,
I agree with you….
“Catholics for Obama”??
How could anyone consider themselves Catholic and vote for a candidate who feels partial-birth abortion should be the law of the land?
This guy needs to be removed so he can’t retire on my donations.
“Catholics for Obama.” How stupid. Why do Catholics have to be swing voters? We all used to be conservative.
Seperation of church and state??? Where are all the sceamers on this one.
It is unconstitutional to display the origional bases of our law (10 commandments) in a court house. Yet it IS constitutional to preach politics in a church as a sermon???
Lets see one is respect of Americian law, the other is to hate all of America?
Ok I got it.
allrsm, I realize you’re trying to make some sort of bigger point, but with all due respect, you should probably brush up on your con law. Start by googling the term “state action”.
#1…..The Catholic Church isn’t going to lose it’s tax exempt status.
#2…..The Catholic Church is very good at defusing/sweeping under the rug controversy concerning it’s priests.
#3…..Religion is so intertwined into the DNA of this country that it can’t be separated from the social and political fabric.
I have to admit that I gained a sense of ethics from my church when I was younger and I am grateful for that. I believe in God, that He exists, and I gain comfort from my prayers. It seems to me that atheists and agnostics are victims of their own hubris.
However, I don’t have much use for churches or other organized religious and antireligious organizations. They are imperfect at best…and capable of doing real harm at their worst.
I admire the determination of some that speak out in order to change unjust and wrong-headed policies by their religions. I hope they succeed.
But I don’t have a dog in this fight…