Priest in Clinton row says racism was his target

BY STAFF REPORTER
A CHICAGO Catholic priest criticised for a speech in which he mocked Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton of New York has said that his remarks the week before were about racism, not politics.
At St Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, where he is priest, he said: "All my life. I have had to deal with the reality of racism. I have committed myself to tearing down the walls that divide us wherever they stand."
The priest mocked Mrs Clinton at Trinity, the church to which Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama of Illinois belonged for nearly 20 years. He said that Mrs Clinton saw Mr Obama as "a black man stealing my show" when he entered the race for the Democratic nomination.
"She wasn't the only one crying," added the priest, who is white. "There was a whole lot of white people crying." A video clip of his address circulated on the Youllibe intemet site.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago expressed deep regret at what Fr Pfleger said. "Wonis can be differently interpreted, but Fr Pfleger's remarks about Senator Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack," the cardinal said.
Cardinal George said that "while a priest must speak to political issues that are also moral, he may not endorse candidates nor engage in partisan campaigning.
"To avoid months of turmoil in the Church, Fr Pfleger has promised me that he will not enter into campaigning, will not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all Catholic priests."
Fr Pfleger said that the days following the dissemination of the YouTube clip were "the most painful days of my life, even more so than the death of Jarvis, my foster son".
Jarvis was gunned down in gang crossfire not far from St Sabina in 1998. "This was a new level, when the world is meeting you for the first time in a minute-and-a-half YouTube 'clip," he said.
Trinity United Church of Christ formerly was headed by the Rev Jeremiah Wright, whose racially divisive views have been denounced by Mr Obama. The candidate formally resigned his membership in the church after Fr Pfleger's appearance.
The clip "in no way defines the sermon or the message that was preached and in no way defined the person or the pastor that 1 am-, Fr Pfleger said at St Sabina.
"It is also grieving to me that a minute-and-a-half YouTube video became the headline when there are earthquakes and cyclones and tornadoes and children being killed right here in our own city."