Oh Hayell No!

I can't believe this! Priests lasted for years in parishes despite being child molesters and Father Pfleger is being removed because of an over the top sermon? I was rooting for Hillary and didn't like his characterization but I know a lot of people felt he spoke the truth. I'm sure Hillary will get over it. Rev. Pfleger's parish will not get over this and I hope they don't take it lying down.

The firebrand pastor of St. Sabina parish was removed from his duties there Tuesday, according to a statement released by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

In the statement, Cardinal Francis George says he asked the Rev. Michael Pfleger, 59, to "take leave for a couple of weeks from his pastoral duties." The statement said Pfleger "does not believe this to be the right step at this time." "While respecting his disagreement, I have nevertheless asked him to use this opportunity to reflect on his recent statements and actions in the light of the Church's regulations for all Catholic priests," George said.

The recent statements in question were video clips broadcast on You Tube where Pfleger mocked Hillary Clinton for crying on the campaign trail. He suggested her tears were due to "white entitlement" leading Clinton to believe the Democratic nomination should go to her, not Barack Obama.

Pfleger has been a priest for 33 years, serving nearly all that time at St. Sabina's in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.

Fr. William Vanecko, Pastor of St. Kilian's parish, will be temporary administrator of St. Sabina's, the statement said.

"I ask the members of St. Sabina's parish to cooperate with him and to keep him and Fr. Pfleger in their prayers," the statement reads. "They are in mine."

I wonder how long it will take him to start his own church. That parish loves him. The archdiocese doesn't need to alienate one of the strongest black congregations in the Catholic church. I don't know whose pressure Cardinal George is bowing to but I think this is a bad call and only feeds the very notion that Father Pfleger was alluding to with his Hillary imitation. Suspend? Maybe. Remove? Absolutely not. This isn't the old days. Old man Daley is long dead. The Chicago Catholic community may still be as segregated as it was when I was growing up but they cannot get away with the separate but unequal treatment they used to dole out. I'm expecting quite a fight.