Remember the wacko Fr. Pfleger in Chicago?
I may be feeling wretched this evening, but I got a good laugh out of this.
Put down anything you may be reading. Really… right now. Put it down.
(Oh… how I am hoping this is true.)
From Big Hollywood:
[…]
New show producer, [the fictional] Bud Billikin of Chicago’s South Side Productions, Inc., has announced that the new show will follow the Father Pfleger as he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime, a run for Mayor of Chicago.
On Friday Pfleger is expected to announce his run against long-time Democrat strongman Richard Daley whose father, a Mayor before him, was famed for having “helped” JFK win the White House in 1960. [Time to pop that popcorn!]
“We expect quite a show,” [the fictional] Billikin told reporters. “The good Father has all sorts of great catch phrases to make his run interesting and what a speaker! Once these two get head-to-head in a debate the Father is sure to make Mayor Daley look like the bumbling, inarticulate fool he is.”
Upon news of this new reality show, major networks all across the dial have become intrigued by this epic battle between the Activist Catholic Father and his African American community and the long-time Mayor of Chicago with his Democrat machine dominated by white, Irish Democrats…
Oh, but wait… that would never happen, would it? No one in TV would ever want to embarrass a Democrat like this, would they? [Nahhh… this can’t be true.]
[…]
Is this for real?
Oh pleeeeze Lord… anything to get this guy out of a parish!
But… in Chicago… they could elect him. Hmmmm….
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Let him run, let him get elected and then let him get laicized. The Church would be better off and Chicago would be no different than it has been for decades.
Maybe, please God in heaven, the intercession of our Blessed Lady and Her Spouse, St. Joseph, with all the angels and saints (I’m part Irish, bear with me, please!)…this could be the proverbial “nail in the coffin” giving Cardinal George the “permission” to kick his(Fr. Phl’s) back-side outta the active priesthood…maybe even laicization (we could only hope).
LOL: I gots to laugh…my spell-check gave me “Anglicization” for “laicization”!! Sorry…very un-ecumenical but I’m dyin’ here!!
I hate to tell you but this is satire.
Any Chicagoan would know that ina heartbeat with the reference to ‘Bud Biliken’.
‘Bud Biliken’ is a fictional character created for children by the Chicago Defender. Every year (around this time) there is a HUGE ‘Bud Biliken Parade’ as a sort of back to school kickoff.
Trust me, as a Chicagoan I would like nothing more than for this particular priest to move on… but I just don’t see it happening.
Personally, I think that 10 years ago someone should have appealed to his vanity and offered him a job in the Vatican to work on studying race relations in the Church (he would love to think he is an expert on that). They could have given him an office in a corner somewhere and then ignored him. He feeds off the media attention and cult of personality that he has created here in Chicago and now it is far to late to remove him from his present location.
I thought clerics were forbidden to run for public office. Well, we’ll now know if Cardinal George is a man or a mouse.
I think you worry too much about other people – Fr. Z has his conservative leaning flock.
Fr.P. has his not so conservative leaning flock. About half the country, about half the church has different ideas than most around here – why pretend otherwise. I think the amount of cynicism, nastiness and negativity will get to you before it will get to the people you point it at. This sort of stuff corrupts ones soul and before one knows it all the good intentions to connect back to a more dignified pious catholic tradition are buried in a swamp of misgivings
As one of my teachers drilled into us kids: if you have nothing nice to say…
Maymartha is right.
Besides
Despite his notoriety, Fr P is just a minor hack in the Chicago machine. All his normal allies would follow orders and support the mayor. Fr P would think is on solitary retreat. But he is astute enough to realize this and he will follow orders from the machine (the Cardinal doesn’t count) and support the mayor.
But it is funny to think of.
mndad: Can’t we all just get along?
not priestly to hold public office in modern age, but on secular side it’s his right as an American citizen.
:) Exactly
mndad: There’s nothing conservative or liberal involved here, at all.
It’s Canon Law…the law of the Church; priests are not to be involved directly in political public office, period.
It’s not a political issue; it’s a Catholic issue. Period.
0h, I wanted the once freed Blago to be mayor of Chicago.
Pfleger….the white Jesse Jackson will meet the same fate. The “politician” who was never actually elected to anything. Pfleger is popular in CERTAIN SECTIONS of the South Side, and simply known everywhere else. Trust me, he doesn’t have a chance in…umm…St. Sabina’s? to be elected mayor of this town.
He is fun to watch… no doubt. His Mundelein education is a blast to watch. They were taught a good vocabulary without a clue as to how to use it! Still true today!
Canon 285 § 3. Clerics are forbidden to assume public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power.
Not to be completely cynical: But the whole “chicago thing”…political, ecclesial, what-have-you, as a former resident of Illinois and somewhat familiar with whatgoesonthere…
Blago. Obama. Pfleger.
All the same, as far as I’m concerned.
And this priest will do whateverthehellhewants unless the Cardinal puts the brakes on it.
Prayers for Cardinal George. And hope he has bullet-proof vests. I’m not kidding.
I second marymartha’s comments. This is obviously an Onion-style satire. Not only because of the reference to the (fictional) Bud Billiken, but also because if Fr. Pfleger were seriously running against Da Mare, being the publicity hound he is, he would call a bona fide press conference. He wouldn’t just appear on some silly reality show. (If you think he would, you must have him confused with Blago.)
mndad: About half the country, about half the church has different ideas than most around here – why pretend otherwise.
This is what’s wrong with the country and the Church. Why pretend otherwise?
Also, if you read all the way through the Big Hollywood article, the author clearly states that the “Fr. Pfleger running for mayor” scenario is a fictional “what if” situation. He is simply asking how the MSM would react IF such a thing happened, and then contrasting it with the reaction to the Bristol Palin-Levi Johnson story and others.
If you follow the Link and read the whole article, you’ll see it IS satire. The writer is basically using this imaginary show vs. the real Levi Johnston show to illustrate how Hollywood treats dems and repubs differently.
Though I believed it for a second–because it doesn’t seem that out of character….
Honestly, Pfleger’s done some decent things too… I often think he could have been a better man if he’d had a bishop or older priest take him aside earlier in his life and set him on a slightly different path. But, honestly, media attention seems to go to people’s heads… and after a certain point, it’s like a drug, and they start thinking about how to please the media instead of pleasing God….
Fr. Pfleger could have been someone different, someone better than he is. That’s why his current situation is a tragedy, not a comedy….
Actually, along about here is where the man’s real influence ceases from an ecclesial point of view, and he becomes a gigantic public cartoon. Let him run, make a big joke out of it, lots of laughs, then make a big commotion about how him running is a violation of church law and get him laicized. End of problem.
I think you worry too much about other people – Fr. Z has his conservative leaning flock. Fr.P. has his not so conservative leaning flock. About half the country, about half the church has different ideas than most around here – why pretend otherwise. I think the amount of cynicism, nastiness and negativity will get to you before it will get to the people you point it at. This sort of stuff corrupts ones soul and before one knows it all the good intentions to connect back to a more dignified pious catholic tradition are buried in a swamp of misgivings
Comment by mndad
You have a point, but it’s different for priests. No one really knows who’s Catholic and who isn’t in a public setting. When priests are in public (say, in an airport), assuming they’re in clerical clothes, they are associated with every nutty priest who has ever been on TV or has disgraced his parish. I once heard Cardinal O’Connor speak just before the Abp Sanchez scandal was made public (at least, he had the gender right). The Cardinal said that every priest now thinks he is always under suspicion.
mndad, if all you have to say are nice things, then you must be incredibly boorish and apathetic
Let us not forget what the word nice means. “foolish, stupid, senseless” It comes from nescius via French. Nescius means ignorant. It remains a rather patronizing attitude, especially when Fr. Pfleger is a dissident. Wouldn’t matter if every American stood behind him. He is not obedient to the Church, and therefore not obedient to Christ
A sign of holiness is a sense of humor. I think if one looked at some of the satire from the past, from the like of Thomas More (Utopia) and others, one could see the value of laughter and yes, some medicinal, political wit.
@Supertradmum – “A sign of holiness is a sense of humor”
I would modify this slightly: A sign of holiness is an _appropriate_ sense of humor. Unfortunately, much of what passes for humor these days is not compatible with holiness.
mndad – It’s not a matter of being conservative or liberal – we are faithfully CATHOLIC and dam proud of it!
mndad – It’s not a matter of being conservative or liberal – we are faithfully CATHOLIC and dam proud of it!
Comment by ipadre
Amen! I dislike the phrases: conservative Catholic, Orthodox(super conservative, as my friends say) Catholic, and liberal Catholic. I am a Roman Catholic.
mndad: If you were in a flood would you say “Don’t worry it’s just a little water” ?
It’s not about right and left its about right and wrong.
A priest does not choose his own path God shows him the way. Fr. P has choosen his own path. While there are some good things Fr. P has done he is a bad model for a sacramental church which we as Roman Catholics are.
mndad,
you’re still looking at this as though the Catholic Church is a political party.
I said the other day in response to another “liberal/conservative” comment from you: this is not politics!
Until you quit applying inappropriate liberal/conservative labels to church controversy, I think you’re going to keep missing the point.
Mndad;
Unfortunately, this means half are wrong…
Wow!
mndad is getting battered!
But y’all are doing the right thing…being Catholic is the thing; this political “crap” is just bogus.
I’m no Republican nor Democrat; I’m a Roman Catholic. And damned proud of it.
Kudos to Pope Benedict XVI, his predecessors, to the moral and social teachings of our Holy Catholic Church. Amen.
Bravo, nazareth priest!! You nailed it.
Thank you, TJerome
It is not often that I receive that kind of affirmation (!). Bless you!
“But, honestly, media attention seems to go to people’s heads… and after a certain point, it’s like a drug, and they start thinking about how to please the media instead of pleasing God….”
I assume you can appreciate that this cuts both ways and does not only apply to Fr. P?
“mndad, if all you have to say are nice things, then you must be incredibly boorish and apathetic”
Joshua08 – do you have kids ? If yes, do you tell them that ‘nice’ really means boorish,stupid, foolish etc.
I indeed think that a bit of reflection might benefit quite a few around here.
What is this little fracas all about ? – a the Onion type joke that some of you just loved so much that you had to turn it into your own form of reality. Who is the stupid one in this kind of game really I wonder?
As hilarious as this is, and it is, the sad thing we cannot forgot is that Card. George, alleged “conservative,” continues to allow himself to be dominated by this man, and continues to let his flock be led to towards hell by this public heretic.
Phleger is simply and obviously a contemporary equivalent of People’s Temple Jim Jones.
The methodology of, appeal to, and audience for both are profoundly, absolutely, and incontestibly *identical*.
How soon before we see these people flocking to Phlegertown in Guyana to drink the purple “communion wine”, administered by scores of “extraordinary ministers”?
Mike Morrow, St. Sabina’s under Father Phleger’s leadership has become an extremely bizarre place. I’m not sure why the Cardinal even bothers to hold onto the place.
I thought I had left the Fr.Pfleger’s when I converted from Protestantism to Catholicism. Oh, wait, even most Protestants would kick Pfleger out.
T.J. Jerome – the parishioners of St Sabina’s, from what I’ve heard, love Fr Pfleger, and would have a cow, if not leave the Church (officially) en masse, if the cardinal overtly ran him out of town. When Cdl George sent Fr P on vacation after his intemperate remarks about Mrs Clinton and white entitlement, it sounded like the priest who stepped in had to tread very carefully.
Why not let it go? Probably because there’d be something wrong with that…and Fr Pfleger has to retire eventually. Whenever he leaves on his own, there won’t be any plausible objection to bringing a new guy in. Maybe an impeccably orthodox African American who has the diplomatic skills to maintain good relationships with the lakefront liberals, TUCC, and the Black Muslim community – while steering st Sabina’s back to, you know, the Catholic faith. Nothing is impossible with God…
What pisses me off is that Fr Pfleger seems to be confirming his parishioners in some self-image of victimhood, portraying himself as the only white man they can trust – implying that the cardinal, the Irish, Italians, and Poles out in the suburbs who would throw spontaneous twenties or write big checks for the ‘second collection to help St Sabina’s,’ if the place were to burn down or get flooded or something, and everybody – but him – are little more than Klansmen.
My point is, aside from having ‘services’ instead of Masses, and no mention of confessions, on his website, it looks (from admittedly more a quick look than deep research) as if Pfleger is perpetuating a destructive, racist worldview – a siege menatlity, if you will.
Nazareth Priest: I’m no Republican nor Democrat; I’m a Roman Catholic.
It occurs to me that it would be interesting to include a “What’s your religion?” question in a poll of all, say, confirmands — not in Fr. Pfleger’s apparently Catholic-in-name-only parish, but in all U.S. Catholic parishes.
What percentage would you guess would answer “Roman Catholic”, as opposed to just “Catholic”? Maybe 1%?
This sort of rabble-rousing, identity politics nonsense has absolutely no place in the Church.
As some have pointed out above, it leads to insularity, pastor-worship, paranoia, and possibly even worse things.
Of course, as also pointed out above, this particular situation has been allowed to fester unchecked for so long that there probably is no good solution other than the passage of time. Whoever the unfortunate priest may be who has to step in is going to have a heavy-duty row to hoe.
I guess the moral, if there is one, is that it’s easier for the shepherd to get the sheep back out of the corn and the green apples if he does something about it before the whole fence is down and the entire flock colicked.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/William_Holman_Hunt_001.jpg
(never mind that the painting probably was Holman Hunt’s commentary on the Oxford Movement and the reestablishment of the hierarchy in England . . . hence the scarlet dress . . . )
S. Murphy, I am well aware of Fr. Pfleger’s popularity with his sheeple. The tragedy is that because of Pfleger they are not really Catholics but more like members of a cult. That’s why I’m a firm believer in moving pastors every 6 years, it’s good for the priest and good for the parishioners.
TJerome – yeah, absolutely. How did Fr Pfleger originally get to stay? I haven’t been home consistently in a long time, but I thought Chicago DID rotate pastors. Or was this guy appointed at a time when the policy was different, and by the time it changed, the parish was so in love with him that he couldn’t be moved without problems?
S. Murphy, I do not know the answer. Typically pastors are rotated in Chicago.