CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
September 10, 2026
Letters: The Chicago Archdiocese mishandled its response to allegation against the Rev. Michael Pfleger
I represent the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church. The recent letter by Leah Heffernan of the Archdiocese of Chicago (“Archdiocese’s investigations,” Sept. 2) highlights a real problem with the ambiguity and the reality of the archdiocese’s process.
Heffernan writes that when the archdiocese receives an allegation of sexual abuse by a priest, it “promptly assesses whether safety of children requires interim action, which may include temporary withdrawal from ministry and/or the ministry site, pending investigation, and announces it publicly.”
Heffernan’s letter falsely implies that the archdiocese actually did an assessment of whether the safety of children required the temporary removal of Pfleger from his ministry and the public announcement of that.
The archdiocese did not make any such assessment. It received the accusation July 6; the accuser says she was abused by Pfleger while attending St. Sabina’s parish school in the early 1990s. The archdiocese determined that the accuser likely attended St. Sabina during the early 1990s. The archdiocese did not do a background check, nor did it interview the accuser before removing Pfleger from his ministry July 11, publicly humiliating him.
Neither Heffernan nor anyone else from the archdiocese made any assessment that the safety of children required immediate removal of Pfleger.
The accuser was interviewed July 16, five days after Pfleger was removed from his ministry. Importantly, if the archdiocese interviewed the accuser before it acted, this injustice would not have happened. Her interview made it clear to any reasonable person that her story was demonstrably false and that the safety of children was never a legitimate concern.
The archdiocese acted too quickly to remove Pfleger from his ministry and acted too slowly to resolve the false allegation and restore his ministry.
The archdiocese’s process is flawed. Thoughtful time and effort should be devoted to fixing and improving the process. The Faith Community of St. Sabina, canon and civil lawyers, and community leaders are making suggestions and volunteering to work with the archdiocese to bring substantial reforms to the process to protect children, while also protecting priests who are falsely accused.
Instead of disrespecting Pfleger and St. Sabina, the archdiocese should celebrate the good it does for children, the community and the Catholic Church.
— Jim Figliulo, partner, Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP