By Canadian Press

Chicago priest Pfleger `devastated’ by sex-abuse allegations

Jan 6, 2021 | 3:50 PM

CHICAGO — An activist Chicago Catholic priest who has garnered attention for taking on everyone from drug dealers to Jerry Springer said Wednesday that he is “devastated” by allegations that he sexually abused a minor more than 40 years ago.

“I am devastated, hurt and yes angry, but I am first, a person of Faith, I Trust God. Please keep me in prayer,” the Rev. Michael Pfleger said in a message posted on Facebook, after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago announced the allegations on Tuesday.

“Pray also for the person,” he went on to write, “my life is more than a 40 year old accusation, and on that and my Faith I will stand.”

Pfleger’s post came after Cardinal Blase Cupich posted online a letter to the Faith Community of Saint Sabina on the city’s South Side, saying that the 70-year-old Pfleger was stepping aside from his duties at his longtime parish and had agreed to live elsewhere.

Cupich’s letter did not offer any details about the sexual abuse, including where it took place. The letter said the archdiocese’s Office for the Protection of Children and Youth would be available to answer parishioners’ questions.

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Pfleger was ordained in 1975 and was assigned to St. Sabina Church that same year. Six years later, according to a biography on the church’s website, he became pastor — the youngest full-time pastor in the archdiocese at the time.

He has won wide praise for turning a sleepy and struggling parish into one of the most thriving in the nation’s third-largest city. Over the years he has garnered headlines for his activism and protests. He has been arrested while protesting at stores that were selling drug paraphernalia and for smearing red paint on billboards advertising cigarettes in his neighbourhood.

Pfleger, who counts the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a hero and quotes him on his phone voicemail, has twice been a keynote speaker for the annual service commemorating King at the civil rights leader’s former church in Atlanta. At the request of King’s family, he was one of the speakers at the 2006 funeral of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, according the website.

His activism captured the attention of film director Spike Lee, who based the character played by actor John Cusack in the 2015 film “Chi-Raq” on Pfleger. He also made headlines when he adopted two children — one of whom was shot to death near the parish — and has clashed with Cupich and his predecessors for such acts as hosting Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan at his church.

In his Facebook post, Pfleger said that the archdiocese has asked him not to speak publicly about the allegations. He did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Don Babwin, The Associated Press