CHICAGO (AP) — A Catholic priest who gained national fame as an activist has been asked to step away from his ministry while allegations that he sexually abused a minor a long time ago are investigated.
The event got here a bit greater than a yr after one other probe cleared the priest, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, of allegations that he sexually abused children.
In a letter sent Saturday, Cardinal Blase Cupich said Pfleger was asked to relinquish his duties on the church, Faith Community of Saint Sabina, after allegations were made that he sexually abused a minor a long time ago.
Pfleger “has agreed to cooperate fully with this request,” Cupich said, adding that the archdiocese has notified the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and law enforcement officials as required by archdiocese policies.
The accuser is a person in his late 40s who said Pfleger on two occasions abused him within the late Nineteen Eighties during choir rehearsals within the Saint Sabina rectory, in accordance with a press release released by a spokesperson for the person’s attorney, Eugene Hollander. The attorney didn’t elaborate on the allegations.
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In his own statement to the parish on town’s South Side that he has led for a long time, Pfleger said he had done nothing flawed.
“Let me be clear – I’m completely innocent of this accusation,” he wrote, telling his parish he was confident that the allegation could be “determined to be unfounded” and that he could be reinstated.
Pfleger, who’s white, leads a Black church in Chicago’s largely Black and low-income Auburn Gresham neighborhood. His activism captured the eye of film director Spike Lee, who based a personality played by actor John Cusack within the 2015 film “Chi-Raq” on Pfleger.
Pfleger has made national headlines for his activism on an array of issues, opposing cigarette and alcohol promoting, taking over drug dealers and stores that sell drug paraphernalia, and leading countless protests. He has even been sued for his activism and once said it “has resulted in jealousy, attacks and hate.”
In May of last yr, 4 months after Pfleger was asked to step apart from his duties while similar allegations involving a minor greater than 40 years earlier were investigated, he was reinstated by the archdiocese after the probe found “insufficient reason to suspect” he sexually abused children.
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