The Rev. Michael Pfleger: Why is Catholic Church 'white church'?

[Beau_Ouiville]

I’m all game for that. I don’t know what the past was like but it doesn’t sound good from what you have said. But, perhaps its just me, that Father Pfleger doesn’t want to move on when he talks about it this way.

That’s just it. The pastor talks about guns, cigarettes, liquor and the lottery. But if he mentions race, folks get their backs up.

 

[DawnInTexas]

That’s just it. The pastor talks about guns, cigarettes, liquor and the lottery. But if he mentions race, folks get their backs up.

I have a question, Beau: Why did a Catholic Priest, Reverend Pfleger-preach in Reverend Wright’s church?

That’s a new one for me. I have never seen nor heard of a Catholic Priest preaching in a non-Catholic church-during a service before this…

Ever.

Was he tired of all the whites (like himself) in his own Catholic Church?
Was he drumming up new members?
What?

God Bless.
+Jesus, I Trust In You.
Love, Dawn

 

[catharina]

I have a question, Beau: Why did a Catholic Priest, Reverend Pfleger-preach in Reverend Wright’s church?

That’s a new one for me. I have never seen nor heard of a Catholic Priest preaching in a non-Catholic church-during a service before this…

Ever.

Was he tired of all the whites (like himself) in his own Catholic Church?
Was he drumming up new members?
What?

God Bless.
+Jesus, I Trust In You.
Love, Dawn

Dawn, Father is assigned to an almost all-black parish.
The parish is St. Sabina’s in Chicago.
You can google it with no problem.

Fr. P has been the pastor of St. Sabina’s for many many years.
He is not serving at a ‘mostly-white’ or “all white” parish.

Here’s a link:

saintsabina.org/

 

[WatchingMedia]

That’s just it. The pastor talks about guns, cigarettes, liquor and the lottery. But if he mentions race, folks get their backs up.

I support the right of women and/or men to protect themselves, and to protect others with a gun. Criminals will always have guns.
There is nothing wrong with an alcoholic beverage in moderation.
Cigarette smoking outdoors does not bother me. I have a 94 year old relative who has been smoking since he was 12, and the guy is healthy as a horse. Plays golf several times a week.
If I ever win the lottery, the Church will get a chunk.

What is the Pfleger doing making up his own sins, as well as his own Church rules ?

Take your pick on Pfleger.
youtube.com/watch?v=3HNOsR4ZaTc&feature=related
youtube.com/watch?v=rxv-p-iGWXg&feature=related
youtube.com/watch?v=GrfLKB9FU8Y&feature=related
youtube.com/watch?v=z5kQ5zR19iw&feature=related
youtube.com/watch?v=LjJlsGrlbUs&feature=related

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

I have a question, Beau: Why did a Catholic Priest, Reverend Pfleger-preach in Reverend Wright’s church?

That’s a new one for me. I have never seen nor heard of a Catholic Priest preaching in a non-Catholic church-during a service before this…

I have. We’re very ecumenical around here. Cardinal Bernadin officiated at Mayor Washington’s services at a Protestant church.

But Harold Washington had been baptized as a Catholic. Few people know that.

What is the Pfleger doing making up his own sins, as well as his own Church rules?

I’m not sure you are all that familiar with the good father’s opinions on the mentioned subjects. You won’t find them on youtube.

 

[WatchingMedia]

Pfleger’s own words shall judge him.

In fact Pfleger had to put another apology on the Diocese web site regarding preaching in favor of women priests.

Since you seem to know him, when is the last time he asked everyone at his Church to read the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” from the pulput with an explanation of how important it is know know about the Faith?
(It was done at my Church just a few weeks ago.)

Now if it wants to talk about racism - that I can fully support - its abortion. Most Planned Parenthood clinics are near large cities made up mostly of minorities. When did he last discuss this from the pulpit ?
When did he speak against Obama’s and Hillary’s abortion policy not only in the US but at the UN ?
When did he speak highly of Cardinal Arinze (who is a great role model)?
Good Cardinal Arinze on pro-abortion politicians - youtube.com/watch?v=kv3MRyKfEHA

 

[WatchingMedia]

Pfleger’s own words shall judge him.

In fact Pfleger had to put another apology on the Diocese web site regarding preaching in favor of women priests.

Since you seem to know him, when is the last time he asked everyone at his Church to read the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” from the pulput with an explanation of how important it is know know about the Faith?
(It was done at my Church just a few weeks ago.)

Now if Pfleger wants to talk about racism - that I can fully support - its abortion. Most Planned Parenthood clinics are near large cities made up mostly of minorities. When did he last discuss this from the pulpit ?
When did he speak against Obama’s and Hillary’s abortion policy not only in the US but at the UN ? Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood for ethnic cleansing.

When did he speak highly of Cardinal Arinze (who is a great role model)?
Good Cardinal Arinze on pro-abortion politicians - youtube.com/watch?v=kv3MRyKfEHA

 

[DawnInTexas]

Dawn, Father is assigned to an almost all-black parish.
The parish is St. Sabina’s in Chicago.
You can google it with no problem.

Fr. P has been the pastor of St. Sabina’s for many many years.
He is not serving at a ‘mostly-white’ or “all white” parish.

Here’s a link:

saintsabina.org/

So, what’s his problem?

Is he trying to disuade the young men from becoming Priests-in his almost all-black Parish, by making these remarks?
The young women-in his almost all-black Parish, from becoming nuns?

After all these years, wasn’t it written here that there’s only been 1 Deacon come out of his Parish?

What are the odds of that?

Wow. How very sad.

Is he perhaps pondering, out-loud and publicly-his failure to encourage others into a life (like his own)-married to Christ’s True Church?

God Bless.
+Jesus, I Trust In You!
Love, Dawn

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

So, what’s his problem?

Is he trying to disuade the young men from becoming Priests-in his almost all-black Parish, by making these remarks?
The young women-in his almost all-black Parish, from becoming nuns?

I guess he’s mentioning something of interest to his parishioners.

 

[DawnInTexas]

I guess he’s mentioning something of interest to his parishioners.

His parishoners are interested in why the Catholic Church is “white church?”

Okay. Well, if you say so.

God Bless.
+Jesus, I Trust In You.
Love, Dawn

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

His parishoners are interested in why the Catholic Church is “white church?”

Okay. Well, if you say so.

And there you have it. This reputation is known in some circles but mention of it just confuses others. I guess then it’s good to get it out in the open.

 

[JM_Wells]

Come on folks, we need to use some simple reasoning here.

The USA has a white population of just a touch over 75%. Obviously that means 3 out of every 4 people are white! That fact alone would make many Christians Churches have a surface appearance of being “white” because at a bare minimum most of those Churches are populated by 75% (or more) white people. Yet, we know as an absolute fact that the Catholic Church is not a white Church; for example hispanics are heavily Catholic, and the USA has a large hispanic population.

Worldwide the non-white Catholic population soars. For example, there are 17-20,000,000 Catholics in India alone. Mexico is over 90% Catholic, African nations are becoming more Catholic all the time, etc.

Father’s complaint is clearly that he does not see, on the south side of Chicago, large populations of black Catholics, which of course is true, yet that does not mean the RCC is a white Church–that is where Father’s logic falls apart completely.

Good point. You know I read somewhere, around 2008, that African Americans are overwhelmingly Protestant. I wondered quite extensively why that is but I think a previous poster hit the nail on the head. Many American Catholics have ancestry from historically Catholic countries (Ireland, Spain, Austria, France) whereas many African Americans come from the South, and other historically Protestant areas. Furthermore many of the countries I mentioned have low black populations. The parish I go to is mostly Spanish, including me, and there are no black parishoners, but where I live is only 3% black to begin with.

But that being said, look at countries like Rwanda where you will find MANY black Catholics. Furthermore look at the many other countries where there are so many members of the Church who are not white. Put into context, the Church is quite a bit more diverse than many American Protestant groups such as for example, the Southern Baptist Convention or the Episcopalian Church.

Bottom line, he’s focusing too much on the makeup of the Church in the US… but the Church encompasses all nationalities, so much more than any other church in fact!

Hope all this makes sense…

-Wells

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

Bottom line, he’s focusing too much on the makeup of the Church in the US… but the Church encompasses all nationalities, so much more than any other church in fact!

The worldwide church wasn’t the question. We are dealing here with the situation (and area) on which the pastor focused. And he was not wrong.

 

[KathleenGee]

I grew up in an inner city neighborhood – mostly immigrant Italian Catholics and Scandinavians, rest protestants – mainly Baptists, and AfAm’s. My Catholic school class had several students whose parents were in the military, and all of them very smart, and not hung up on race. The one boy in my class was about the most popular.

I went to public high school. We had a Japanese student body president, an AfAm vice president, and the rest white because it was the majority. The old wealth of the town had their teens come here, all white. We had alot of AfAm kids. Never once did I ever hear any white teen make any derogatory racial remark against any student. I caught up with an old classmate many, many years later and we were so thankful to grow up in an neighborhood like that. There was another high school that had less diversity, and more working class people. My girlfriend who was our student body president married the SB president of that school, but I never heard him ever talk about class or race issues.

I think we were essentially indifferent…we had Happy Days.

But I worked overseas in SE Africa. First encounters…I was afraid the natives wouldn’t like me because I was white. The priests told me not to worry as they had great respect for the missionaries. The first encounter out in the mato – countryside – was when the pastor greeted a familiar native. The man slapped his knee and laughed…and I told the priest he laughed just like AFAm’s do. Very good man. We had alot of young men and women from Africa coming in. I partnered with a Mozambique AfAm friar. We talked alot and I never felt any thing racial…these people were coming into the church through the SE Italians. And they were very familial and had so much love and devotion for the people. Then I could see what the missionaries told me before.

My pastor friend returned there in 2007. He wrote an essay that they were still his people. Many had died from the destruction over issues of powers…it is maddening.

In the meantime, another priest friend visited me in NYC in 1978. We went on the town. Came to a store where a Baptist AfAm choir was singing. He was shocked to see the same sentiment in these New Yorkers as he experienced in Africa…

I think RC whites are shocked to see AfAm’s attend a Latin Mass simply because the sentiment and culture are so different. A priest at the local cathedral played 2 kyries…one in Gregorian Chant and the other according to a local African group. Everybody at the Cathedral really liked the African version.

I found the Africans very friendly and open. And I formed strong relationships with the people, and they were easy and fun to be with, and knew when you were joking and teasing them…they would laugh back.

One thing we never did was cripple them…meaning, making them want to be dependent…we initiated, but the idea was for them to learn and then do it themselves and grow to be more sustaining.

I have heard only a few remarks that shocked me about racism in the Catholic Church in the USA.

I hold alot of blame for people who went to Africa to exploit them. The priests I worked with always defended them. But it was global political powers that turned the country into a bombing expedition. Exploitation. Now, finally they have peace, but the complete infrastructure of the country was destroyed, including many of the missions I had visited. A South African Protestant Ph.D. told me that the Marxists did their utmost to destroy the Catholic faith in Mozambique.

My impression of Fr Pfleger is that he does do alot for the people in his parish, he provides a sounding board to the people who have been deeply hurt by whites and can’t see beyond, but he also appears to keep them in the spot of being wounded and not guiding them with the eyes of Christ.

If he keeps it up about challenging the big Tradition, he may be getting a call from the local chancery.