Good for Cardinal Cupich, but can His Excellency take it a step further and remove the pastor?
Cardinal Blase Cupich Apologizes to Jewish Community After Louis Farrakhan Speech
The Nation of Islam leader spoke at St. Sabina Church after being banned from Facebook
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich has condemned what he called anti-Semitic statements made by Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan at a Roman Catholic church on the city's south side.
He also rebuked Catholic priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger for inviting Farrakhan to speak without consulting Cupich.
“Minister Farrakhan could have taken the opportunity to deliver a unifying message of God’s love for all his children,” Cupich said in a statement.
“Instead, he repeatedly smeared the Jewish people, using a combination of thinly veiled discriminatory rhetoric and outright slander.
“Instead, he repeatedly smeared the Jewish people, using a combination of thinly veiled discriminatory rhetoric and outright slander.
“I apologize to my Jewish brothers and sisters, whose friendship I treasure, from whom I learn so much, and whose covenant with God remains eternal,” he continued.
Pfleger invited Farrakhan to speak at St. Sabina Church after he was banned from Facebook, along with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos after they violated the site’s ban on “dangerous individuals.”
Pfleger defended the decision to invite Farrakhan to his church, saying he was responding to the ban as a “defender of free speech.”
During his speech, Farrakhan asserted people shouldn't be angry with him if "I stand on God's word." He also said he knows "the truth" and "separate the good Jews from the Satanic Jews."
Cupich blasted the comments, classifying them as "antisemitic rhetoric” that had no place in the public sphere.
“Discriminatory invective of any kind — has no place in American public life, let alone in a Catholic church,” he said.
Cupich encouraged "Pfleger to accept the invitation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center to meet with their leadership and dialogue with survivors” in his statement condemning the remarks.
Prior to Thursday’s event, Pfleger dismissed criticisms from those, including the Illinois Holocaust Museum, that were condemning his embrace of Farrakhan on free speech grounds.
“Too many people have struggled and died for the right of free speech and I will continue to struggle to preserve it,” he said. “Anyone who knows me and my life’s work knows I have sought to fight for the Beloved Community that Dr. Martin Luther King called us to.”
7 comments:
Kabuki Theater. All staged. I am willing to bet Cupich and Pfleger met and agreed on this "public rebuke" to satisfy the mouth-breathers. The status quo must be maintained. Just look at the future of D.C..
Fr. Pfleger would be funny if this was not so dangerous. His statement shows that he is devoid of the ability to reason. The only alternative causes are a profoundly weak mind afflicted with an illness or a very deceitful man with a contemptuous view of his flock. Surely there is an open cell near McCarrack.
St. Sabina's was a premier Catholic parish at one time on Chicago's south side, mainly comprised of families of Irish heritage. The riots of the 1960s chased most of the parishioners away. Father Pfleger, frankly, comes across as mentally ill of the Jim Jones variety, and he should have been removed long ago. Cupich really needs to get him out of there for the sake of the parish. And he is clericalism on steroids.
Bee here:
Unfortunately for those of us scandalized by this clown, Fr. Pfleger hauls in millions and millions and millions of grant dollars yearly for the Archdiocese of Chicago, so he will be doing as he damn well pleases, thank you very much.
Cupich will make a show of anger but won't do anything serious to him, and Pfleger will show him from the nose, just like he did Cardinal George. (If you remember, Cardinal George tried to "manage" Pfleger too. He wanted to transfer Pfleger, but Pfleger didn't want to go, a scuffle erupted, and Cardinal George seemed to slap him on the wrist, but backed down and Pfleger went on as he pleased.)
Pfleger is so far from a religious man it's laughable. He uses his Roman collar and St. Sabina parish as a political platform to get attention for his ultra-liberal social activist agenda. The only time he wears his Roman collar is for protests and T.V. appearances. Otherwise it's either a T-shirt or open collar shirt.
What I wonder is why, after all these years, and all that money given to him, in general the black people in his area of Chicago are just as destitute and downtrodden and morally out of control (out of wedlock births, drug use, drug selling, theft, murder) as they were when he started. Hmmmm.
God bless.
Bee
Asking Cupich to man-up...isn’t that an oxymoron?
Playing to the crowd by a public “apology” may placate a few but doesn’t and won’t solve the problem.
Maybe Pfleger could become Episcopal...he would fit right in with radical causes. He "preached" one time here in Atlanta at an MLK observance and of course could not resist being partisan and fiery (unfortunately MLK observances here in Atlanta have degenerated into partisan sniping---"Republicans are bad, they want to suppress voting, la, la la...."
Bee,
I have thought for a long time the Archdiocese should suppress St. Sabina's because it is no longer a Catholic parish in the truest sense of the word. Those Catholics who are still there could go a few blocks to another Catholic Church. The remainers could remain at St. Sabina's and continue to enjoy the cauldron of hate that exists there.
I find it fascinating that "liberals" have not condemned Pfleger for the gravest of liberal sins: cultural appropriation!
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