Dozens of parishioners from St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham gathered Friday morning to call on the Archdiocese of Chicago to expeditiously complete its investigation into another allegation of child sexual abuse brought against the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a well-known voice for progressive causes in the Chicagoland area.
“Justice cannot exist if fairness is extended to only one side of a process,” Felicia Chase, chair of the St. Sabina Family Parish Council, said Friday, quoting a letter of demands that congregants planned to deliver to the archdiocese later that day.
Pfleger has served as pastor of St. Sabina since 1981 and has often been an outspoken advocate for issues important to Chicago’s Black community. He has faced allegations of sexual abuse multiple times in the past, and in those cases too received robust support from portions of the St. Sabina community.
In this case, the allegation was made by a girl previously involved with St. Sabina more than 30 years ago. Cardinal Blase Cupich announced last weekend that Pfleger was removed from ministry while the investigation continues. It’s the third time since 2021 that Pfleger has been accused of sexual misconduct involving children, though he was cleared in both previous instances.
“The church’s commitment to protecting survivors must remain, but that commitment should never preclude a process that also safeguards the dignity, rights and humanity of those who are accused,” Chase said. “These principles are not mutually exclusive. True justice requires both.”
More than 40 signatories called for “a swift and timely conclusion to the current investigation consistent with the evidence and principles of due process.”
Further, the St. Sabina congregation demanded “a public commitment to begin a comprehensive review and reform of the current investigative policy so that it reflects justice, transparency, compassion and fairness for all parties involved.”
In a statement released Friday afternoon, the Archdiocese of Chicago said: “We are committed to following the same thorough and impartial process with everyone so accused. Only by doing this can we be assured of fairness to all concerned.”
Former State Senator Jacqueline Collins recalled how, during her time in the state legislature, Pfleger was among those who supported her efforts to “hold sexual predators accountable for their crimes.”
“After decades and decades and decades of the Catholic Church turning their backs on the children and protecting the priests, they initiated a false process,” Collins said. “It allows for falsehoods and lies to be weaponized by Father Pfleger’s haters.”
Cupich said that, in line with the archdiocese’s child protection policies, the allegation has been reported to law enforcement authorities.
“I want to stress that the welfare of the children entrusted to our care is our paramount concern,” Cupich wrote last weekend. “The Archdiocese of Chicago takes all allegations of sexual misconduct seriously.”
In a statement posted to social media last weekend, Pfleger called the allegation “an absolute lie.”
“Let me be clear, sexual abuse is wrong and I realize that the Catholic Church has a long history of not dealing with accusations and has spent a number of years putting strong policies in place, but I have said countless times I believe the current policy is wrong and unfair to the accused priest,” Pfleger said in the statement.
More Top Picks Beard Trimmer
In another statement on Facebook Monday, Pfleger said his understanding is that the archdiocese’s investigation will be expedited.
“If it is not over very soon, I will make a decision,” he wrote.
In 2021, he was accused of molesting two preteen brothers during the early 1970s while serving as choir director at Precious Blood Catholic Church in the Near West Side. Months later, a third accuser alleged that, when he was 18, Pfleger made an unwanted sexual advance in the priest’s bedroom area at St. Sabina Church in 1979.
Pfleger was reinstated after an archdiocese panel found “insufficient reason to suspect” that he was guilty of the allegations.
Pfleger was accused of sexual abuse again in 2022, by a man who alleged that the priest sexually abused him at St. Sabina Church in the late 1980s. He was reinstated after an investigation by the diocese determined that the allegations were unfounded.