A very sad thing to have happened. I hope Fr. Pfleger has a quick attitude adjustment, because he seemed like a decent priest at heart, when St. Sabina’s appeared on that church renovation show.

He has a lot of good years left in him, if he’ll just bite the bullet and obey his bishop.

“Kimberly Lymore, associate minister at St. Sabina Parish, read the following statement early tonight”

And that’s just one warning flag as to what’s going on there. The parish website refers to her (I’m assuming it’s a ‘her’) as Dr Kimberly Lymore, but doesn’t mention just exactly what it is that she is minister (or associate minister) of – now, Fr. Pfleger is the parish priest and his curate is another priest, but if there is a woman minister involved in running things – then yes, that may or may not be dodgy, depending on what she does.

Because I see that he’s expressed support for women’s ordination (as well as married clergy, which is a different kettle of fish) so that yeah – the Church is not a democracy. He’s done a lot of very good work, and for a white guy in a predominantly black parish, he’s got an amazing rapport with his parishioners, but he’s been allowed pretty much run the show in his parish for thirty years, which is unprecedented: priests get moved around, that’s the rule in the Catholic Church, and for one guy to have his own church like that – of course he’s going to come into conflict with the bishop sooner or later.

Looks like finally, “later” has come. I hope this can all be sorted out, but if he’s going to the extent of “If you don’t play by my rules, I’m going to take my ball and go home” – sorry, doesn’t work that way.

“Citing what he called threats from the Rev. Michael Pfleger to leave the church,”

I think in many ways he left long ago.

Jeffrey Lee– now there’s a walk down memory lane (or dark alley LOL). The only time in my life I have ever been drunk was this. Having suffered through one of his sermons and one of his covention dinner speeches previously, and hearing only “Lee, Lee” all fall WRT the speaker’s name for the convention dinner at hand, and also having forgotten (it was moldy leaves season) I had already taken my allergy medication, I took the stuff again (I would realize too late) and then upon getting to the dining room and seeing how tight it was (I am claustrophobic), decided that if I had to endure that as well as another Jeffrey Lee event, I was jolly well going to have some anesthesia, and had 3 glasses of wine with dinner. After that, a parish delegate (I was still new and just an alternate), knowing about the claustro, kindly *kept* filling my glass up, too. Last thing I recalled was effecting to operate an aircraft stick whilst in the glass elevator/over the huge atrium the place had. As the parish shutterbug, I was also there to get pictures, so I spent the next day (once recovered from having to look at Eggs Benedict on either side of me at breakfast) toting a Rollei 6006 around and doing a lot of bending etc with a blinding headache…..after all that, it turned out the speaker was Peter Lee, not Jeffrey Lee, and while he seemed almost as overbearing, I also knew that I was probably in no shape to be able to tell. So I was gratified to learn, years later via this site, that I had probably picked my poison well after all. (Thanks, Chris!)

Glory Glory Hallelujah!!! At last! The Chruch revolves round Jesus Christ and not dissident priests who in their arrogance and pride are up to threatening even bishops, in the light of the current priest shortage, with leaving. The bluff has been called in this case. Now watch all the Catholic dissidents supported by the NYT, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles times and the Washington Post proclaiming this man Pfleger a victim and a martyr of the intolerant Orthodox Catholic conservative troglodytes

PS–does Pfleger like fine wine, fine food, and fine conversation? Especially the conversation. And more conversation. And more…. if he goes on that journey Chris is predicting…

It delights the cockles of my heart to hear that this douchbag supreme is getting booted. The only sad thing is the thought of where the turd will land.

Christopher H., he is still a priest. Pray that he lands squarely on the mercy of God and honors his vocation.

[...] tip to Chris Johnson of the Midwest Conservative Journal. share: Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Buzz it up share via Reddit Share with [...]

“An “associate” minister of Saint Sabina’s Church, Kimberly Lymore,….: who is female. There is no such position in the Catholic Church. Maybe “pastoral associate” which is a much different kettle of fish.

As an aside, which may not be completely an aside, this is a very political priest, who’s had close relations over the years with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Some of his writings and homilies were posted during the 2008 campaign season, which people who didn’t read conservative sites didn’t see. Not the kind of priest who focuses on Catholic faith.

For our Catholic friends in Ireland and Australia, here in the U.S. the shortage of priests and, in some cases, the liberalism of the ones who are left, means that many parish functions other than the sacraments are often performed by laypeople, including females.

As usual, the narcissism of these liberal priests borders on the masturbatory. They are just tooooooo wonderful to follow anyone except that paragon of perceived perfection they hungrily eye in the mirror every day.

As a Catholic, I am however reminded of a story where some townspeople where a local priest was behaving terribly fetched St. Francis to rebuke him. When St. Francis arrived, old and bent, all he did was to lovingly take misbehaving priest’s hands in his and declare “All I know is that these hands bring me Jesus.” And that was enough to totally convert the scandalous priest.

I will pray for him as we all should. A priest, even a bad one, is still a very holy thing.

By all means pray for the conversion of Pfleger. However, pray first for the members of his flock mislead by his heterodoxy, and Cardinal George who will face the wrath of the devil’s messengers.

Yet another “Cult of Personality” built around an activist and dissident priest. He does need and deserve our prayers, even if he chooses to be unreceptive to them. Place him in God’s hands.

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer

Miss Sippi, if you’re okay, please post.

Sorry, totally off topic, but I get attached to MCJ commenters. It was a very bad day in Mississippi yesterday.

“Now watch all the Catholic dissidents supported by the NYT, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles times and the Washington Post proclaiming this man Pfleger a victim and a martyr of the intolerant Orthodox Catholic conservative troglodytes.”

We-heh-hellll then! OCTW!

Jeff Lee is a part of the CREDO institute. Does anyone know anything about this organization that has links to CREDO? http://www.episcopalfreshstart.org/. It sounds like an organization that prepares a congregation to receive a new priest. What is that about?

Fuinseoig, Katherine, thanks for filling in some of the background details on this guy. I got the impression that the writers of the article were being a bit, shall we say, selective with the facts

He’s a piece of work, but he is still a priest forever according to the order of Mechizedek, and we should never wish such to abandon their calling, but rather to fulfill it.

So the Cardinal wanted to move him from already corrupted parish and let him corrupt/mislead the younger generation. That, plus the fact that this priest has been a public scandal for years cuts into whatever good Cardinal George is finally doing.

NO – FWKen, There is only ONE Priest Forever after the Order of Melchizedek – That is our Great Hight Priest, Jesus, Christ and Lord.

Only. One.

Some who have been ordained as pastors and overseers have never really been truly Christ’s…but have had their own @#$&^*! agendas, purposes and egos in place of Christ: Robinson, Ragsdale, Shori, Williams, Cutie, Chartres, Fraser, Spong, Lahey, Maciel, Sodano.

This story reminded me of something I had read in Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s autobiography, Treasure in Clay.

He had just graduated with highest honors and was offered two university teaching posts. He presented both offers to his bishop and asked which he should accept.

He was told “come home” and was appointed curate in a poor parish. Now, in his own words:

“As far as I could tell, this was to be my life. I was intellectually bent, loved teaching, but now I was an assistant in a poor parish. Editorials appeared in the newspapers against the bishop saying “why does he waste such talent?”.

“I never complained and I can say in my heart of hearts that to me this was the will of God. I had to forget my desire to follow a more intellectual vocation, and was resigned to being a curate. This gave me a great peace of mind.

“It was my first test, as a young priest, in obedience. The will of God was expressed through the Bishop as a successor of the Apostles and that was sufficient for me.”

He then tells of the steps he undertook to raise attendance and improve the parish and states he was happy. Then a year later:

“The Bishop phoned: “Three years ago I promised you to Bishop Shahan of the Catholic University as a member of the faculty.” I asked: “Why did you not let me go there when I returned from Europe?”

“Because of the success you had on the other side. I just wanted to see if you were obedient. So run along now you have my blessing.”

Perhaps this priest should read Treasure in Clay. It is not too late to take up the passion of Fulton J. Sheen – a man who forever preached the true faith.

….to name just a few.

The idea expressed by Mike in KS, MO that priests are ‘very holy things’ may be part of the problem in the RCC.

Elevating the church and religious above human beings and not holding and keeping them transparent and accountable…as the Anchoress said recently, it’s too much power and power corrupts.

I am not against the RCC, or TEC, UMC, PCUSA, etc., just very sad about all the global church.

Beautiful story, Kelso. I think God tests all Christians this way…in the School of the Cross.

This story reminded me of something I had read in Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s autobiography, Treasure in Clay.

Thanks for the great story.

You meant Ed the Roman, Whitestone, not FW Ken. It could have been me, of course, but it wasn’t.

The holiness of the priesthood does not lesson one bit the unholiness of the man who holds the office as this one does.

Isn’t there a leper colony that needs a priest? for this one needs some form of Purgatory to regain the dignity of his office.

Just for reference:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWigzBClEk8
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpIgVpjxyUw
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5kQ5zR19iw

Cheers

Re: Treasure in Clay story

Curate at a normal parish was also Fr. Ratzinger’s first job when he got out of graduate school. He got to teach religion class to all the grades as well as doing all the hard work that young priests could do for a pastor. His bio said he found it very rewarding and eye-opening, and he was almost sorry to go be a professor after that. But it taught him to be a better teacher because he had to make himself understood in simple language, and taught him to look after his students at college just like his parishioners.

The job Fr. Pfleger’s been offered is exactly like the job my old pastor was sent away from our parish to do. It’s real work but it’s also rewarding, and gives him plenty of control over his days. It’s a sweet deal and he loves promoting the school. But then, it seems Pfleger doesn’t know what’s good for him, unlike my old pastor.

OK, I just got it. Whitestone’s a sockpuppet, right? Some Traddy who wants to vilify Protestants by making them look like ignorant, rude and bigoted fools. OK then. Mouth zipped. WON’T feed the trolls. Not me. Nuh-uh. Best just to skip over it.

Kathy C: That’s the way to do it!!!!! Her starting point: Catholics are not Christian!!! Thus endeth the lesson!

Whitestone, in the Roman Pontifical, in the Rite of Ordination of Priests, the Ordaining Bishop says to the Ordinand(s) “You are a priest forever, according to the Order of Melchizedek.”

If you want to say that there’s only Priest in that order, you’d better explain how Jesus and Melchizedek can be the same guy.

And LaVallette, I have to disagree with you: Whitestone thinks that some Catholics are Christian, but that the Catholic Church is not very much better than TEC if at all, and worse in that claims to be The Church but really must accept correction from other (Protestant) churches. The way they accept correction from each other, presumably. /sarcasm

Which boils down to accepting correction from Whitestone, as I’ve said before. Luther put it well: every man has a Pope in his belly.

Thank you ED. It is the Catholic church that is not Christian but some Catholics are Christian especially if they agree with Whitestone or as you say, are prepared to take correction from Prophetess Whitestone. Makes sense!

Well, by golly, it looks like the episcopos might be able to steal another “Winner” from the Catholics! Mathew Fox, Fr. Cutie and now this mental case. If only Rome would allow transgendered, bi, transexual perverts to marry each other and certain mammals and ichythoids, maybe this flood of losses could be stemmed.

As Mark Shea puts it, “If only ___ could get married! If only _____ could be priests!”

It is a tragedy. Pfleger has done some genuine good in improving lives and the area around the parish. Unfortunately, he’s pandered to the worst elements of race-baiting (Farrakhan) in the process, and has developed a cult of personality.

I truly hope and pray that he manages to get his head on straight.

Guys, ease up on Whitestone. Yes, she’s the old-fashioned ‘Catholics are semi-pagans’ type, but on the other hand, I have to share an island with Ian Paisley and of the two of them, Whitestone is the less likely to get me shot.

Okay, Ian has mellowed some with age, and there’s also the Peace Process (which is currently more threatened by idiots claiming to represent the majority of us – yes, I’m looking at you, Real IRA), but on balance: Whitestone is not going to get any of us blown up or shot or beaten to death.

On a different topic: thank God none of you are discussing the Royal Wedding. I’ve done my best to avoid it all day long, but even over here, there’s been so much coverage that I’m cross-eyed from it. Apparently the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a decent sermon, but we all know that most people only tuned in to see what the dress looked like.

to marry each other and certain mammals and ichythoids

Don, was that a Lovecraft reference?

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Spong TEc wgah’nagl fhtagn”

What wedding? Is someone getting married?

I didn’t tune in; I only looked at the photos, for the dresses and hats. Bride: Outstanding design, very lovely. Ditto for bridesmaid and some guests (Spanish royalty looked great). Hats: Some nice. Some bizarre. Whole idea needs work.

Had I tuned in, it would have been for the parade.

“Ia! Ia! Hastur!!….”

“I only looked at the photos, for the dresses and hats.” Hats! Glorious hats! And dresses that actually covered all appropriate body parts whilst looking stylish and *gasp* grown-up! Did like Kate’s dress, as well. Elegant and bridally modest, unlike too many contemporary wedding dresses that make the bride look like the backup model for Goya’s “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors”. (Just for the record, however, I spend most of my days in jeans and T-shirts, looking far from stylish.)

Jeans and T-shirts aren’t stylish? It depends on where you are. I would love to see an end to the bridal gowns that look like risque prom dresses. When will the girls rediscover elegance?

Well the T-shirts tend to be things like “Extraterrestrial Highway” (from a visit to Rachel, NV across the road from Area 51), and “Designated Driver”, showing a sepia photo of an inebriated cowboy slumped in his saddle with his horse on the saddle in front of him, reins in paws…

oops. dog. not horse!

Ah, SouthCoast, those T-shirts do have extra cachet. Good show.

If you’re referring to the wedding, I saw it. Due to circumstances of the day before, I was wide awake so I figured I might as well watch what might be the last gasp of high Anglicanism. Dr. Williams was in fine form.

Christopher, even Damian Thompson said it made him wish for one split second that he were Anglican.

I just watched the wedding on CBS’s site and it was entirely lovely. But do you suppose there’s some way that we could have Katie Couric’s vocal cords removed?

Never mind, Tonestaple, she’ll be off TV soon, perhaps to be replaced by someone even worse.

“…we all know that most people only tuned in to see what the dress looked like.”

Well, that’s what I did. It was a lovely dress. Perhaps this will create a new trend in bridal gowns as Diana’s hair style and gown did 30 years ago.

TLM– we can hope! Am getting so tired of seeing so much skin, everywhere, all the time, double ditto WRT open-toed shoes (on either gender)– gag……..Loved that she had them put some Sweet William in her bouquet. Hope the little girls watching took a hint from that, and the dress!

Lovely dress, lovely service. Precious little bridesmaids. Ghastly hats. Music scripturally based. Nice homily, but not by the ABC. (Had to wonder what Charles was thinking during that one.) Included a prayer supposedly written by the couple. All in all, it had the dignity and focus that American weddings have lost in the effort to be a “production” not a worship service.

Smurf Breath: No, but in my first year or so of college, I thought Lovecraft was super-duper creepy. He doesn’t seem too be much noticed these days. Too bad. One of the best SF/Horror writers ever.

I couldn’t watch the wedding for very long…I always get sick watching the Anglicans making themselves at home in our buildings that they stole from us. My Houston Chronicle described it as “when the Abbey stopped being Benedictan….”!

I watched most of it on the BBC broadcast via PBS and so got a mostly British perspective. Don’t think I could have lasted through the whole thing with Katie Couric.

I loved that they had the traditional marriage service (and Dr. Williams and the other clergy did it beautifully) — 2 billion people watching got a much bigger dose of actual Christianity than they bargained for!

I couldn’t help watching some of the replay– it was all over tv as I looked for the news. I did stop to watch, when I realized that they were about to exchange vows. Something odd happened. I was overcome, literally, with awe at the solemnity and the power of those vows. I trembled for those two, since I don’t suppose they understand what powerful vows they made.

Certainly Charles made the same ones and, apparently, never intended to keep them. I tremble for all who undertake such a thing lightly. I hope and pray that you are right, Laura, and that it was a dose of Christianity, a dose of sanity, for all those who heard.

Colleen, I had the impression that William especially seemed to be quite serious, taking in the solemnity of the occasion. Perhaps the whole experience will bear good fruit — let us hope so.

One thing I like is that William was in uniform as Colonel in Chief of the Irish Guards, whose motto translates “Who Shall Separate Us?”

Thanks for that info, Ed. Since so many other things seemed to have been done intentionally, wonder if that was too??
Wasn’t this thread supposed to be about some priest???