Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago (United States), has reinstated Father Michael Pfleger to ministry at St. Sabina Parish after the Archdiocese’s Independent Review Board concluded that “there is no reason to believe” he is guilty of the accusation of sexual abuse of a minor that led to his precautionary removal last July.
The decision was communicated by Cupich in a letter dated August 24 addressed to the faithful of St. Sabina. After receiving the findings of the investigation, the cardinal stated that he had accepted them and reinstated Pfleger “with immediate effect.”
The accusation under investigation dated back more than thirty years. As the priest himself explained when he was removed, a woman who had studied at St. Sabina claimed to have been sexually abused by him between 1993 and 1995. Pfleger categorically denied the allegations from the outset and described the accusation as “an absolute lie.”
Cupich defends the procedure followed
In his new letter, Cupich devotes a significant portion of his explanation to defending the procedure used by the archdiocese.
The accusation was examined by the Independent Review Board, assisted by the Archdiocese’s Office for the Protection of Children and by external investigators. The cardinal maintains that an independent investigation guarantees both the person filing the complaint and the accused “a fair and impartial review” of the facts.
Cupich also introduces a particularly significant consideration after having removed Pfleger from ministry for more than a month: the procedure, he states, must also protect “the rights and interests of the accused cleric.”
When the Board concludes that there is no reason to consider the priest guilty, the archbishop adds, he must have “the freedom to return to ministry without a cloud of suspicion hanging over him.”
“No one should underestimate the value of an independent and disciplined investigation, even if it is made public and requires a considerable amount of time,” he notes.
Regarding the specific case, Cupich states:
“The Review Board has concluded that there is no reason to believe that Father Pfleger is guilty of this accusation.”
He adds:
“After careful consideration, I have accepted their conclusion and have reinstated Father Pfleger to ministry at St. Sabina, with immediate effect.”
The fifth known accusation in five years
The investigation now closed was not the first one the priest had faced. Pfleger has been the subject of several accusations of sexual abuse referring to events allegedly occurring decades ago, but previous ecclesiastical investigations also did not determine his guilt. The Chicago press identifies the one filed this summer as the fifth known accusation in approximately five years.
In January 2021, Pfleger was removed after two brothers accused him of having sexually abused them when they were minors, dating back to the 1970s. Another accusation later emerged. The Independent Review Board examined the complaints and concluded that there were insufficient grounds to consider the priest guilty. Cupich reinstated him in May of that year.
The letter in which the cardinal announced that reinstatement used a very similar formulation to the current one: the Board had determined that there were “insufficient grounds” to suspect that Pfleger was guilty.
In 2022, the priest was again removed from ministry following another complaint, filed by a man who placed the alleged events in the 1980s. After a new investigation, he was again reinstated in December of that year after it was concluded that there were no grounds to suspect that he was guilty.
More than a month removed from St. Sabina
The latest investigation began in July. Cupich then announced that Pfleger must step away from all ministry and temporarily leave his residence at the parish while the facts were clarified.
The priest publicly responded by denying the accusation and questioning the system used in these cases. “The presumption of innocence does not exist for priests,” he maintained at the time.
The St. Sabina community, where Pfleger has carried out his ministry since 1981, reacted with an intense campaign in defense of the priest.
On August 16, parishioners and supporters gathered in front of Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral to demand his return. Three days later, another gathering was called in front of the archdiocese’s offices under the slogan We Stand With Fr. Pfleger. His supporters called for a swift resolution and questioned the effects that prolonging the procedure was having on the parish.
Some parish leaders even called for changes to the archdiocese’s investigation system, including greater transparency regarding timelines, faster resolutions, and a system of precautionary measures that would take into account factors such as the age of the accusations and the existence or non-existence of a current risk to minors.
Pfleger: “I’m Back”
After learning of his reinstatement, Pfleger reacted on his social media with a photograph of Michael Jordan accompanied by the expression “I’m Back.”
“Thanks be to God and thanks to all who stood by my side,” the priest wrote.
Pfleger, 76, is a well-known figure in Chicago for his more than four decades leading St. Sabina and for his activism against gun violence, drug trafficking, and crime. His public activity has also sparked controversy within the Church.
In 2011, then-Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Francis George temporarily suspended him after Pfleger threatened to leave the priesthood if he was transferred from St. Sabina. In 2019, Cupich publicly censured his decision to offer the parish as a platform for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Cupich asks the parish to leave behind “sadness and disappointment”
The August 24 letter concludes with a spiritual reflection addressed to a community that has experienced the removal and subsequent reinstatement of its pastor several times.
Cupich recalls the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday about taking up the cross and following Christ, and maintains that sufferings should not necessarily be understood as punishments, but can be united to the Cross.
“I want to acknowledge the suffering that you and Father Mike have endured, because I know that his absence has been real and painful,” he writes.
The cardinal asks the faithful to allow the Word of God to free them “from all sadness and disappointment” and requests that they continue to be “a light in the community.”
With the decision announced on Monday, Michael Pfleger returns for the third time in five years to ministry at St. Sabina after having been removed from ministry as a precaution due to accusations of sexual abuse that the archdiocese’s investigations did not consider substantiated.