Fr. Pfleger reflects on 50 years at St. Sabina Church: 'I'm here to serve'

Father Michael Pfleger said he's been blessed for the past 50 years to serve St. Sabina Church on Chicago's South Side.

CHICAGO - A celebration was held at a Catholic church on Chicagos's South Side Wednesday honoring Fr. Michael Pfleger for 50 years of priesthood.

The backstory:

He’s spent the past five decades at Saint Sabina Church in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

Over time, Pfleger has been a voice for the underprivileged and underserved, especially for his parish's neighborhood, handing out meals, calling for boycotts and leading marches. In the summer of 2018, he helped lead a crowd to shut down the Dan Ryan expressway in an anti-violence campaign.

Over the years, Pfleger has had to deal with controversy, most recently sex abuse allegations that the archdiocese found to be unsubstantiated in 2021 and 2022.

"I'm here to serve"

What they're saying:

The Archdiocese had tried to move Pfleger from the parish in the past, as most priests tend to change churches during their careers, but he pushed back and so did his parishioners.

"One of the things you realize about communities where there's been a lot of neglect and abandonment, it takes time. You know, it takes a long time to develop it and become the comprehensive campus that we are now," Pfleger said.

Pfleger joked that he'd like to stick around 100 more years.

"There's no diva here," Pfleger said. "I'm not here to be lifted up. I'm here to serve. I want people to be able to say that I served and that I cared and that I was for real."

May 14th, 1975, is when Fr. Pfleger was ordained, so to celebrate the church gave back in "A Day of Blessing."