UPDATE" Father Pfleger: 'They Want To Kill Me...It's Been Ugly'
Sun-Times Reporting
CHICAGO -- Father Michael Pfleger, who helped reignite Barack Obama's pastor problems by mocking Hillary Clinton, said he's received "thousands of hate threats" since his videotaped pulpit rant.
"They want to kill me," Pfleger told parishioners during a service in a St. Sabina Church chapel on Chicago's South Side. "It's been very ugly."
During his Sunday sermon, he read a statement to pews packed with worshippers.
He says he isn't a racist or a sexist and says the last few days have been "the most painful days" of his life.
The firebrand Catholic Priest made his controversial Clinton comments last Sunday at Trinity United Church of Christ, home church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor.
Pfleger mocked Clinton for crying on the campaign trail, and suggested it was "white entitlement" leading Clinton to believe the Democratic nomination should go to her -- not Obama.
His speech was videotaped, and quickly made the rounds on the Internet and on television, leading Obama to express his "disappointment" in the activist priest, whom he has known for years.
Pfleger's boss, Cardinal Francis George, also rebuked Pfleger for his "personal attack" on Clinton, and said he had received assurances from Pfleger that he would no longer campaign for or even mention the names of political candidates.
In his brief comments, Pfleger did not name any candidates, and said he would address the controversy at a Sunday Mass at St. Sabina.
"I'm not going to make a statement," Pfleger told the crowded chapel.
He did say it's been a difficult week filled with an unspecified surgery on Tuesday and a deluge of threats.
"It's a very difficult situation," he said. "I've received thousands of hate threats."
He did not offer any specifics from the pulpit, and declined through an aide to comment further. That included declining a specific request by the Sun-Times for a comment on Obama's decision to leave Trinity church.
That bombshell revelation came out Saturday. It followed weeks of Trinity-related headaches for the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama was a longtime member of the church. Wright married Obama and his wife, Michelle, and baptized their two daughters. But Obama had to publicly distance himself from Wright after videotaped sermons hit the Internet showing Wright criticizing the U.S. government — including exclaiming "God damn America!"
Pfleger has already apologized for his searing sermonizing, saying in a statement, "I regret the words I chose on Sunday. These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama's life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Sen. Clinton or anyone else who saw them."
In his address at Trinity last Sunday, Pfleger began by talking about the need to expose "white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head," according to a video clip on YouTube. Pfleger speaks of Clinton's tearing up just before the New Hampshire primary.
"I really don't believe it was put on," Pfleger said. "I really believe that she just always thought, "This is mine! I'm Bill's wife, I'm white, and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into the plate." And then out of nowhere came, "Hey, I'm Barack Obama," and she said, "Oh, damn! Where did you come from? I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show!'"
Mimicking Clinton mopping tears, Pfleger added, "She wasn't the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying."
Copyright 2008 STNG Wire, The Chicago Sun-Times. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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