St. Sabina senior pastor Father Michael Pfleger vehemently denied an allegation that he sexually abused a minor at St. Sabina decades ago after he was asked to step aside from his position during an investigation.
His statement, that was sent to NBC Chicago, was made after Cardinal Blase J. Cupich sent letter to the church community on Saturday in which he stated he asked Pfleger to step aside from the ministry and live away from the parish during an investigation into the allegations.
“I write to share some difficult news about your senior pastor, Father Michael Pfleger. The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review has received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Father Pfleger,” Cupich said in the letter. “In keeping with our child protection policies, I have asked Father Pfleger to step aside from ministry and live away from the parish while the allegation is investigated. Yet, you should know that Father Pfleger strongly denied the allegation.”
Rev. Pfleger denied the allegations in a statement sent to NBC Chicago, calling them “an absolute lie.”
He said he was notified of the allegations via a call from the Vicar for Priests on July 9.
This is not the first time Pfleger has faced this sort of allegation.
Pfleger was reinstated after stepping aside in 2022 when a Chicago attorney filed a claim with the Archdiocese of Chicago alleging that Pfleger had sexually abused his client when he was a minor in the late 1980s. Prior to those allegations, Pfleger was also accused of sexual abuse by three different men, leading to an investigation into Pfleger that began in 2021, after which he was also allowed to return to the church after the Archdiocese found the allegations to be unfounded.
Read his full statement below:
“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.”
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