The First Ward Report – Batavia’s own Father Pfleger

And speaking of that abundantly false and self-aggrandizing prophet, despite beyond credible sexual abuse accusations against him being brought to light, the Chicago Archdiocese completely capitulated to that St. Sabina mob by reinstating yet another pedophile priest.

I suppose expecting anything reasonable from an institution that took 400 years to apologize to Galileo is bound to lead to disappointment.

And now it seems that sleepy backwater known as Batavia, Illinois, has their own Father Michael Pfleger – without the sexual abuse allegations.

For reference purposes, one of the few policies the Catholic Church actually gets right is rotating priests out of parishes every five to six years. The lesser point being that no church will be saddled with a bad priest in perpetuity, and the greater being that parishioners won’t get too attached to any priest or vice versa.

Per the erudite Mr. Springsteen, those Cardinals and Bishops understand that the faithful should trust the art and not the artist, because to put your faith in the artist (priest) is to create the kind of false idol that made it into the top ten no-no list. This is the Catholic equivalent of that eminently basic and wise Zen Buddhist tenet, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!”

No one has a monopoly on the truth, particularly those who think they do.

Ah! But much like Father Pfleger refuses to be moved from St. Sabina, Batavia Township’s Holy Cross Church Pastor James Parker is embarking upon a similar course of action. Though unlike Pfleger, it appears that his congregation fomented this open rebellion and Parker’s just going along for the ride.

With June 15 ostensibly being his last Holy Cross day, his parishioners are suddenly prone so making some of the most absurd statements at their various backyard prayer vigils:

• One said the Rockford Diocese is “cancelling” and “persecuting” the priest.
• Another said, “We will not stand idly by as our spiritual father is unjustly taken from us without explanation.”
• Yet another couple claimed, “He’s like a little saint.”

While I find the last on the list to be kind of humorous (what’s the difference between a “big” and “little” saint), the rest are patently absurd. Not only has Rockford Diocese Bishop David Malloy failed to “persecute” Father Parker, but they extended his Holy Cross stay for a seventh year, and per Church policy, now it’s time to move on.

Some Holy Cross parishioners are correctly concerned that Parker has no new assignment, but that’s well within the Diocese’ purview, and it is what tends to happen to rogue priests who fail to amuse the Bishop. To put this in perspective, go ahead and tell your boss that you refuse to accept that transfer to another corporate department and see how that works out for you.

But the worst of the protestors is none other than ultra-conservative Batavia activist Sylvia Keppel. If you recall, Keppel unsuccessfully led the electoral charge to strip Batavia of its Home Rule powers. To keep it brief, she’s the kind of conservative who firmly believes that one must follow the rules until they apply to them.

Ah yes! There’s no hypocrite like a Catholic hypocrite.

To be fair, she’s more concerned with Parker being “put in limbo,” a Catholic term for a priest without a parish, but the irony there is, Keppel’s  and her cohorts’ efforts to forestall Parker’s inevitable transfer certainly haven’t helped his reassignment case.

To be fair one more time, many of his congregants had high praise for Parker, and I do recall how difficult it was to lose a good priest during my Evanston St. Nick’s days. In fact, I still talk to one of those stellar fathers. But those compliments beg the question, considering it was Christ who set the selflessness example, why not let Parker go so he can have a similar impact on the fine folks at a new parish?

But no! It’s that pernicious “it’s all about me, me, me” phenomenon rearing its ugly head one more time. I also can’t help but consider that, if these fine Catholics were similarly dedicated to forcing the Church to root out pedophile priests, there’d be none left.

So, while Parker certainly shares Pfleger’s ample ego and capacity to put himself above his Savior, he doesn’t share his celebrity status. That means he will leaving the Holy Cross parish next week and Father Andrew Dietz will take over on June 16.

And that’s exactly how it should be.