In his first comments on the St. Sabina dispute, Cardinal Francis George said Sunday he would not speculate why representatives of a mostly white Catholic athletic league voted to keep out the black school.
“I can’t judge someone’s motivation unless I talk to them,” said George, who returned late Saturday from a goodwill mission to Poland. “I don’t know if they’re racist or not.”
Nor would the cardinal assume that fears about safety were a smokescreen for racism. “The desire to protect a child is evidence of a parent’s love,” George said after mass at Holy Name Cathedral. “There are statistics about levels of violence in certain neighborhoods.”
Still, he said, “I would hope we might find a way to take care of safety concerns so we can have interracial leagues. … I think it’s very important that children of different races play together and become friends. … I don’t have any solutions, but we’ve got a lot of folks working on it.”
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The vicar for the area, Bishop John R. Gorman, will lead the archdiocese’s effort to reach a resolution, the cardinal said. A meeting with members of the Southside Catholic Conference is scheduled for Thursday.
On May 24, representatives of the athletic league–made up of 21 schools in the city and south suburbs–voted 11-9 to deny St. Sabina admittance. Some parents were concerned about their children’s safety if they had to travel for games at St. Sabina.
Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina, “should have gone through Bishop Gorman” to handle the dispute when it began, George said. “That’s the way the Catholic Church is governed,” he said. “If a priest has a problem he goes to the bishop.”
Pfleger couldn’t be reached to respond to George’s comments. The dispute became public when Pfleger discussed the vote with a reporter before the bishop became involved.
Last week, Sister Anita Baird, head of the archdiocese’s office for racial justice, had suggested possible racial motives for the exclusion of St. Sabina.
Baird had said that league officials’ assurances that St. Sabina was safe should have been sufficient. She had also quoted the cardinal’s recent letter on racism, which said that fears of violence are common, but that such fears become prejudice when people assume that another race is violent.
George said that he hadn’t talked to Baird, but that exploring the possibility of racism “is her primary concern and it should be. … I’m glad she raises that issue.”
Pastors and parishioners at the center of the dispute weighed in Sunday during and after services.
At St. Cajetan in Morgan Park, Rev. John Barkemeyer said he didn’t know how his church voted in the dispute. But he told parishioners that St. Sabina should be welcomed into the league. Racism is a sin, he said, and they should look at their own motives and possible prejudices.
At St. Louis de Montfort Church in Oak Lawn, which voted against St. Sabina, parishioners differed on whether the vote was about prejudice or concerns for safety.
At St. Sabina, Pfleger said the week’s events confirmed to him that the issue is race. Since the story broke, he told parishioners, he has received droves of hate mail, including 200 hostile e-mails. “It’s amazing just the hate out there–and then they say it’s not race,” he said.
On the flip side, Pfleger said he has received an outpouring of support, including calls from coaches in Naperville, Glenview, Skokie and Joliet “who said, `Can we come play with you?'”
He dismissed arguments that the conference’s concerns were about safety and not racism. “When our children have to be told that where you live and where you go to school … is an unsafe place and it’s unfit for somebody else’s children to come to–how dare you?”
Pfleger said when he thinks of violence in America, images that come to his mind are of Oklahoma City, Columbine “and all the rich white schools where people are murdered.”
He added: “I’m not a bad neighborhood, America is a bad neighborhood.”
Pfleger dismissed criticism that he was just looking for attention with the issue, saying that his outspokenness will not help his standing in the church.
“If anything else, I’ve committed political suicide in the church. I’m not going to be a monsignor, I’m not going to be a bishop.”
After the rousing sermon, Pfleger sat down and cried as he held a white towel to his face.
At St. Cajetan, Barkemeyer told his flock that racism must be expelled from the church. “Racism is a sin. It is unacceptable. It is wrong. It has no place in our church or in our hearts,” Barkemeyer said. While there is no proof the decision was race-based, he said he believes the debate has glaring racial overtones.
Some parishioners were grateful for the message.
“I think some people are confusing safety with what they are really feeling,” said Mike Dolan, a religion and history teacher at Brother Rice High School. “You have to call it what it is.”
“Racism is fear,” said Anne Beilfuss. “It’s fear of the unknown.”
Other parishioners, however, blamed Pfleger for first not accepting terms that would have allowed St. Sabina’s pupils to join the league, such as agreeing to no home games, and for complaining through the media.
The midmorning mass at St. Louis de Montfort Church was filled with reminders– including readings in four languages–that followers of Christ should be of the same spirit, regardless of race or ethnicity.
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“We are united as equals,” Rev. Frank Burek said in his homily. “Our differences are erased.”
After the service, Burek said nothing in his message was meant as a reference to St. Sabina. St. Louis de Montfort was one of 11 that voted against acceptance.
Still, outside the church, many church parishioners said the message reminded them of the turmoil surrounding the vote.
“It’s been in our hearts,” said parishioner Saul Robles. “A place of worship is the last place you’d think this kind of prejudice would occur. After the family, the next layer is the church, so this sends the wrong message.”