Child sex abuse allegations against Father Michael “Snuffy” Pfleger have caused the Archdiocese of Chicago to remove him from his parish at Chicago’s St. Sabina’s church on the city’s south side. Church officials will investigate the claim, but until it is resolved, Pfleger’s reliable voice against civilian gun ownership will be sidelined.
The news spread like wildfire across Chicago. The publicity-hogging Pfleger has long had a reputation as social justice warrior priest. WGN has the story.
Prominent Chicago priest Father Michael Pfleger has been asked to step away from ministry following a decades-old child sexual abuse allegation, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Tuesday.
According to a letter sent from Cardinal Blase Cupich to the St. Sabina community, Father Pfleger has been accused of sexual abuse of a minor from more than 40 years ago.
Pfleger is well-known in Chicago as an anti-violence activist and has been the pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church, located in Auburn-Gresham, since 1981.
Over the years, the possibly pervy priest has aggressively lobbied for gun control and against civilian gun rights. In fact, at one event, he urged the community to “snuff out” John Riggio, the owner of retailer Chuck’s Guns in Riverdale.
Here’s a transcript of the threat from the man of God now accused of child sex abuse from an earlier rally at Chuck’s Guns, courtesy of Fox News.
He’s the owner of Chuck’s, John Riggio, R-i-g-g-i-o. We’re going to find you and snuff you out. You can’t keep hiding because you’re afraid. Obviously, you know you’re doing something wrong. You wouldn’t have your business in a truck. You wouldn’t have a truck pulled in front of your door, because you know you’ve got to hide. Like a rat, you’re going to hide, but like a rat we’re going to catch you and pull you out. We are not going to allow you to continue to hide when we’re here.
In a perfect example of hypocrisy, the alleged holy man who advocates against gun rights also employs multiple armed men to protect him. No guns for thee, but guns to protect me. And the quite un-Christianlike, violence-espousing man of the cloth tends to attract similarly un-Christianlike people into his orbit.
Among Pfleger’s armed bodyguards over the years, one (pictured below) was arrested for carrying a gun without a license on the steps of Pfleger’s St. Sabina’s church.
And then there’s the story of another of Pfleger’s bodyguards who was arrested on multiple charges after cops say he murdered a woman who was allegedly shoplifting from a corner drug store.
A man has been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of a woman at a Northwest Side Walgreens.
Louis Hicks Jr., 33, was charged Thursday with one felony count of first-degree murder, one felony count of false impersonation of an officer and one felony count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Police said Hicks was identified as the person who shot and killed 46-year-old Sircie Varnado inside the Walgreens on the 4800 block of West Fullerton Avenue in the city’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood last week.
Now Pfleger has been removed for the time being. Here’s the letter from the Archdiocese.
St. Sabina Letter Notifying… by WGN Web Desk
If Michael Pfleger did indeed sexually abuse a child, he deserves the harshest of penalties, both in the here and now and in the afterlife.