Cardinal Blase Cupich apologized to “my Jewish brothers and sisters” in a lengthy statement issued Friday, the night after Minister Louis Farrakhan “smeared the Jewish people” at Fr. Michael Pfleger’s St. Sabina Church.
Cupich laid the blame at Pfleger’s feet, saying the South Side priest did not consult Cupich before inviting the controversial leader of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam into his church.
“Minister Farrakhan could have taken the opportunity to deliver a unifying message of God’s love for all his children,” Cupich’s statement read. “Instead, he repeatedly smeared the Jewish people, using a combination of thinly veiled discriminatory rhetoric and outright slander.”
Cupich, leader of the Archdiocese of Chicago, made no mention of possible disciplinary action against Pfleger; he did “encourage” Pfleger to visit the Illinois Holocaust Museum “to meet with their leadership and dialogue with survivors.”
“Such statements shock the conscience,” the statement read. “Antisemitic rhetoric — discriminatory invective of any kind — has no place in American public life, let alone in a Catholic church. I apologize to my Jewish brothers and sisters, whose friendship I treasure, from whom I learn so much, and whose covenant with God remains eternal.”
A night earlier, Farrakhan gave a defiant and defensive response to Facebook banning him from all social platforms — including Instagram — for violations of its policies on hate speech.
“I’m here to separate the good Jews from the satanic Jews,” Farrakhan preached at the end of what up to then had been a largely uncontroversial speech.
“I have not said one word of hate. I do not hate Jewish people. Not one that is with me has ever committed a crime against the Jewish people, black people, white people. As long as you don’t attack us, we won’t bother you.”
Repeated attempts by the Chicago Sun-Times to reach Pfleger on Friday were unsuccessful.
However, Pfleger did comment on Friday to ABC7:
“He said there were good Jews and there are bad Jews, true. There are good Catholics and bad Catholics,” Pfleger said. “I’m doing what I believe the Gospel calls me to do and continue to try and bring people together and try to speak truth.”
Until his closing comments, Farrakhan had spent most of his speech speaking about injustices done to black people throughout history and especially in the United States. The minister said he was not trying to take anything away from white people and should not be considered racist for pointing out the struggles African Americans have faced.
Farrakhan has been a polarizing figure for the better part of three decades, often criticized for anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric.
Still, Pfleger welcomed his “brother and friend” Farrakhan into his church Thursday as a “defender of free speech” to give the minister a chance to respond to the Facebook ban. Pfleger also spoke at the event, giving an impassioned response to attacks on both men.
“This past week, I have been cursed at, received an overwhelming amount of hate calls, emails, hateful Facebook postings,” Pfleger said. “It is interesting to me that those who accuse him of hate have been so hateful this past week. Oh, the hypocrisy.
“It is dangerous to me when we begin to stop free speech and seek to silence prophetic voices,” Pfleger said. “There are many who say they do not like Minister Farrakhan because all they have heard is various sound bites. Perhaps that is why Facebook wanted to ban him — to keep people from hearing his whole talk, his entire message and the truth that he seeks to teach us.
“Minister Farrakhan has been a bold voice against injustice done against black people in this country, and his voice deserves and needs to be heard,” Pfleger said.
This is hardly Pfleger’s first brush with controversy since becoming pastor at St. Sabina in 1983.
In early 2002, Pfleger said he was told by Cardinal Francis George that he would not be allowed to stay at the parish. Pfeleger said then he did not want to go to another parish and that, if forced to leave St. Sabina, he might leave the priesthood.
George relented amid outcry from parishioners.
A similar controversy erupted again in 2011, and at that point, George suspended Pfleger from his ministry at St. Sabina and barred him from performing Catholic sacraments because of public statements Pfleger had made about a possible reassignment.
In a letter to Pfleger at that time, George said Pfleger’s public remarks that he would leave the Catholic Church rather than accept a position outside of St. Sabina led to his decision. “If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish,” George wrote.
Pfleger also led an anti-violence march that drew thousands of people and shut down the Dan Ryan Expressway for a few hours in July.
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