Fr Pfleger, friend of barry, is nothing if not predictable. barry and Notre Dame were getting all sorts of press. Francis Cardinal George got involved. So to garner some attention Fr Pfleger decided to fly the American Flag upside down as a means to highlight the gun violence in Chicago in particular as relates to Chicago Public School Children. The violence is real. The deaths are real. And the fact that nothing is changing is real.
Flying the American flag upside down should only be done in immediately dire circumstances.
Section 8a of the United States Flag Code:
The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
And there was nothing immediately preceding his act that qualified. Had he put it up last April when in the span of 72 hours there were 32 people shot, 2 stabbed and at least 6 died in 72 hours – then it would make sense.
That’s the background. The fallout – emails that he received and emails that were returned are quite disturbing and at best unpriestly. Fr Pfleger maintains he was not involved. Ahern doesn’t specify who brought them to Fr Pfleger’s attention. From the way it reads, it sounds like the original email sender reported them. Just a guess.
From NBC’S MARY ANN AHERN. Strange to be reading her words instead of watching and listening to them.
Email sent to Fr Pfleger:
I don’t know who you think you are to show disrespect for THE American flag.If the so called leadership in the Catholic Church paid a little more attention to NIT WITTS like you there would be a lot less litle alter boys” in trouble.
Return email purportedly from Pfleger had a different email address than the one it was sent to:
Perhaps you are suffering from latent homosexuality disorder?” The tone got worse in later e-mails. One said “I guess it fair to draw the conclusion that the female sexual partner you are referring to is your mother? signed in Gods Blessing, Father Michael Pfleger.”
Father Pfleger said the responses are not from him. He’s asked the Attorney General’s office to investigate. As well, Cardinal Francis George has asked one of his auxilliary bishops to contact Father Pfleger about the e-mails.
Pfleger is hoping the investigators will be able to determine just where the e-mails are coming from.
Pfleger told NBC Chicago “it’s a criminal act. I will press charges.”
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