St. Sabina parishioners defend Father Pfleger after sexual abuse allegations

CHICAGO - Leadership and members of St. Sabina Church gathered Friday morning to defend Fr. Michael Pfleger who was recently accused of sexually abusing a minor roughly 30 years ago.

Supporters of Pfleger read and delivered a letter to the Chicago Archdiocese to "talk about flaws in its process of handling accusations of sexual abuse."

Pfleger was removed from the church on Saturday and has been asked to live off campus after the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of child abuse investigations received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Pfleger.

"We do not presume the truth or falsity of an allegation until the process is complete and our Independent Review Board has made a recommendation that I accept. Only by conducting a thorough and impartial review can we ensure fairness to all concerned," Archbishop of Chicago Blase Cupich wrote in a letter to St. Sabina.

Pfleger denies sexual abuse allegations

What they're saying:

Pfleger released the following statement over the weekend, declaring his innocence.

"On Thursday, July 9th, I received a call from the Vicar for Priests saying a woman who said she went to school at St. Sabina made an accusation that she was sexually abused by me at some time between 1993-1995.

"First, this is an absolute lie.  For the 51 years of my ministry I have been threatened, slandered, and attacked.  I was suspended twice because of my calling out of racism and suspended for unfounded accusations.  My background has been investigated from high school, college, graduate school, and all the years of my ministry and all accusations were determined to be unfounded.

"I have been publicly attacked due to my public position against gun violence, my opposition against the inhumane policies and practices of Donald Trump, and even because of my friendship with Minister Farrakhan. 

"I get weekly hate calls and emails because of what I fight for and believe.  Just this past week I received numerous hate calls due to an action I took last Sunday washing the feet and apologizing to representatives of Indigenous People, Hispanics, African Americans, the LGBTQ+ community, Iranians, Venezuelans, women and young African American males for the persecution they have suffered in America.  I have been under constant attack by the present administration which I have vocally condemned as unlawful, racist and wicked.  For this I will not apologize.

"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.  Before an investigation or even a conversation has taken place a priest is removed and told to remain silent during their process. The presumption of innocence does not exist for priests.  But at this point, I will no longer be quiet.  I have no memory of this girl nor do countless others who have been at St. Sabina for those years.  The statement she has supposedly made is absolutely not true, and the facts will show that this is just an attempt by someone who is either being unfairly manipulated by others to hurt my reputation, or who is simply trying to make money by making false accusations.

"I believe this is another attempt and another attack by those who have sought to destroy me for years and another attempt by someone to get money from the Archdiocese and to silence me.

"I will not stand by and allow my name, my ministry, and the church I pastor to be slandered or defamed."