Church in the World

Anti-Clinton cleric suspended

United States

AN OUTSPOKEN priest has been temporarily suspended after comments he made attacking Senator Hillary Clinton caused presidential nominee Barack Obama to resign from his Church of 20 years, writes Rocco Palmo.

Cardinal Francis George, the Archbishop of Chicago, on Tuesday said he was removing Fr Michael Pfleger from St Sabina's Church on Chicago's South Side "for a couple of weeks" so that the cleric might "put recent events in some perspective". He also appointed a neighbouring priest as temporary administrator of St Sabina's. Despite the cardinal asking for cooperation from church members, laity-led protests took place in the church's sanctuary within hours of the announcement.

Late last month Fr Pfleger condemned what he called Mrs Clinton's sense of "white entitlement and supremacy" in the Democratic presidential nomination contests and termed "America as the greatest sin against God". He later apologised, but added: "There's more to the story."

Fr Pfleger's remarks, made during a routine appearance at Trinity United Church of Christ on 25 May, were denounced as "divisive, backward-looking rhetoric" by Mr Obama, a senator for Illinois and long-time Trinity member who once cited the priest among three "spiritual guides".

In his homily, which has had nearly 400,000 hits on the website YouTube, the priest, who is white, said Mrs Clinton had been on the verge of tears days before the New Hampshire primary in January because she felt "there is a black man stealing my show".

Fr Pfleger has established his mainly African-American parish as an influential force on the black church scene in the city and beyond to a rare degree for a Catholic community. The leader of a host of social-service and community-aid ministries, the priest usually travels with an assistant and bodyguards.