Cardinal George offered a post as president of a nearby high school to Father Michael Pfleger who has been at St. Sabina for 30 years. St. Sabina is a black church on the south side of Chicago. (For those of you who don’t know – Pfleger is a visible – very visible – outspoken critic of those in power – including the Church and the Daley and Bush administration. He may still be in O’s camp but I can assure he is in the camp of the poor and voiceless.)
Father Pfleger refused. The Cardinal asked him to leave the Church. You know he is shrill! He has been a thorn in the side of the Church for a long time. He is an antiwar activist and a noisy one. He can be a SOB. But he was at most of the antiwar and affordable housing rallies in Chicago. Shouldn’t a priest be with his people – even the Liberal ones.
He is an inspiring speaker. I didn’t like what he said about Hillary. But look, he is a man who speaks out. He spoke out for the Iraqi people. He spoke out for his black parishioners. He spoke out for Obama (unfortunately) but at the time many people were fooled or desperate for a change.
What shocked me were the comments I read after the AP article. And here is where I am a naive little girl (albeit an older one). People who commented don’t like him. They said in effect “Good bye – here’s your hat; what’s your hurry.” Many terrible remarks about Liberals also slipped in. You know when you spend time on the liberal/progressive blogs, you forget about the hatred out there heaped on people like us. He was called Communist, anti-American, a cafeteria Catholic (that’s me btw).
We were roundly mocked and yelled at during the first marches of the Iraq War. But the marches became so large that the police were forced to be careful – and had to wear name tags for one. They tried to get away with that. You wouldn’t know about the rallies because the non-shrill press and tv personalities did not give any airtime to us. The riff-raff. Father Pfleger always stood with the riff-raff. I wish him well.
You have to hand it to him! He was a political genius to stay in that position for as long as he did.
I wish him well! Shrillness – it doesn’t count for the Tea Party – only for Liberals/Progressives. I hate the MSM. And I say with every shrill shred of my soul.
UPDATE: According to a headline in Chicago Sun-Times, the congregation of St. Sabine took to the streets for a march. Glad to see it.