Sneed exclusive: The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the peacemaker priest who has been trying to get guns off the streets for years, has a new anti-gun target.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.
Pfleger, the firebrand pastor of one of the largest African-American Catholic congregations in Chicago, now wants guns banned from all buildings belonging to the archdiocese.
“Guns shouldn’t be in our churches,” said Pfleger, the combative pastor of St. Sabina who describes himself “as the only priest in the archdiocese to be suspended twice!”
“How can we be role models and a witness in the world if guns are in our buildings and offices — especially when gang crime is destroying our neighborhoods and when the CEO of a Loop company was shot in his office today by an employee, who then killed himself,” he tells Sneed.
Pfleger, who has clashed with two Chicago cardinals in the past, said he now has a “good working relationship with Cardinal Francis George, who just gave him a new title: archdiocesan representative for anti-violence initiatives.
“Cardinal George has been very supportive and agrees with my stance on this gun initiative proposal, but I’m told many priests are against it . . . and the issue was brought up at a recent priests’ senate meeting and they shot it down,” Pfleger said.