Background A
German American from the
South Side of
Chicago, Pfleger attended
Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary South,
Loyola University and the
University of Saint Mary of the Lake. He was ordained a priest for the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago on May 14, 1975.
Parish ministry Since 1981, he has been
pastor of the mostly
African American parish of Saint Sabina, a Catholic church in Chicago's
Auburn Gresham neighborhood. His uninterrupted tenure in just one parish is normally unheard of in a diocese where pastors usually serve for only six to twelve years. When he was appointed to his present position, at age 31, he became the youngest pastor in the Chicago archdiocese. Under his leadership, Saint Sabina has established an Employment Resource Center, a Social Service Center and also an Elders home. In May of 2025, at the insistence of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination with an all-day event that included a gun turn-in and gunlock giveway, the distribution of 400 boxes of free food, and an afternoon carnival for kids.
Social activism , Min.
Louis Farrakhan and
C.T. Vivian Pfleger's social activism has brought him media coverage throughout Chicago and beyond. He has often collaborated and associated with African American religious, political and social activists such as
Jeremiah Wright,
Joseph Lowery,
Jesse Jackson,
Harry Belafonte,
Cornel West and
Louis Farrakhan.
Anti-drug campaigns Under Pfleger's leadership, the community of St. Sabina demanded the shutdown of a number of Auburn Gresham businesses specializing in
drug paraphernalia. His parish also campaigned for the removal of tobacco and alcohol
billboards from their neighborhood. When billboard owners refused to cooperate in the early 1990s, he and others decided to climb ladders and deface the signs. He was charged with destruction of private property, but was
acquitted by a jury in 1991. In September 1997, the
Chicago City Council voted 44–1 to eliminate tobacco and alcohol billboards from selected areas in Chicago. Pfleger described the decision as "a tremendous victory for the children of Chicago, for our neighborhoods, especially black and Hispanic neighborhoods."
Jerry Springer and Howard Stern Pfleger has become one of the best known critics of
The Jerry Springer Show, a controversial television program which was videotaped in Chicago. Believing the program to be immoral, he and his parishioners began picketing outside the show's studios in 1991. By 1998, he had organized a
boycott of the show's advertisers. "[Springer is] glorifying violence every day.... Calling a woman a
ho and a
bitch is sick. This is not normal behavior", he declared. The show's producers eventually claimed that they would attempt to decrease the number of on-stage fights on the program. Pfleger later targeted radio personality
Howard Stern in response to Stern's late 2005 advertising campaign to promote his move to
satellite radio. Pfleger specifically objected to a pair of Stern's billboards in Chicago that featured an image of the
black power salute with the caption "Let freedom ring. And let it be rung by a stripper", a parody of a line in
Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "
I Have a Dream" speech. Pfleger told the media, "As we prepare to celebrate Dr. King's birthday, we will not tolerate this kind of disrespect. We should not have to tolerate it in our communities."
Viacom, the owner of the billboards, eventually removed the signs due to the protests. Pfleger received criticism from Stern's fans, who questioned Pfleger's commitment to
freedom of speech.
Jesse Jackson came to Pfleger's defense, saying, "There are two freedoms at issue here. They have the right to advertise, and we have the right to resist it in our community. Sometimes freedom is challenged by a community's tolerance level. I think Father Pfleger is a man of great dignity and has an acute social conscience. And he deserves our support."
Outreach to prostitutes In 2000, Pfleger received international attention for encouraging his parishioners to buy time from
prostitutes as a means of inviting the women to counseling and job training. The
Chicago Archdiocese largely distanced itself from Pfleger's activities, to which he responded, "How is what I'm doing not part of the
gospel? The church leaders talk about
evangelization. Well, if this isn't evangelization, I don't know what is." Saint Sabina raised several thousand dollars for his program, attracting many donors from outside their parish. St. Sabina has used similar methods to reach out to
drug dealers.
Southside Catholic Conference controversy In 2001, Pfleger fired racism accusations towards a mostly-white
primary school athletic league, the Southside Catholic Conference, after they refused to admit Saint Sabina's parish school. The league claimed that visiting teams and parents would be unsafe in Saint Sabina's neighborhood. He responded, "Racism continues to be alive and well both inside society and inside the church. To be denied admission on the sole premise that certain coaches and parishes feared for the safety of their children is illegitimate, ridiculous, and insulting. It is very troubling that the conference would insinuate that we would place their children in harm's way." Chicago's Cardinal
Francis George eventually pressured the league to reverse its decision.
Billboards against disrespectful rappers In 2007, Pfleger and his Saint Sabina parishioners erected twenty billboards across Chicago with the words "Stop Listening To Trash", followed by a list of "disrespectful
rappers", which included
Fat Joe,
Lil Wayne,
Nelly,
50 Cent,
G-Unit,
Twista,
Snoop Dogg and
Ludacris. Pfleger said in a press release, "If we are going to end the violence and disrespect of women, we must fight every form of negativity, including the music industry." He explained to
WMAQ-TV's Alex Perez, "When you disrespect women and you continue to demean a community or race by names and by language, that's unacceptable. ... We can kill with our words."
Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright On March 28, 2008, Pfleger invited
Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of then-U.S. Senator and presidential candidate
Barack Obama, to deliver a blessing at Saint Sabina during a visit by poet
Maya Angelou. Wright had been criticized by Obama, academics and political pundits on the left and right for several
controversial sermons, but Pfleger came to Wright's defense. "I wanted him to come here so he could see that people really stand with him and support him while he's under all this attack. America, unfortunately, has been really cheated of knowing the real Dr. Wright," said Pfleger. In a statement on Saint Sabina's website, Pfleger wrote, "Dr. Wright is one of the great
biblical scholars of our country and the best of preachers in the prophetic tradition. Dr. Wright has been shamefully demonized by 30 second sound bites that have tried to re-define him into someone other than who he is." ==Controversy==