CHICAGO (AP) — Two brothers in their 60s have described what they say was years of sexual abuse by a firebrand priest who gained fame speaking out on national politics and for taking on drug dealers in poor South Side neighborhoods around his Chicago church.
The brothers said in written statements and in comments during a Monday news conference that the abuse began in the 1970s as Father Michael Pfleger offered them safe haven from street-gang violence and from family problems.
A statement from Pfleger’s private attorneys said the allegations were false. The Sunday statement said “Pfleger has never abused them or anybody else.”
After church officials announced an allegation about Pfleger had been received earlier this month, Pfleger said on Facebook he was “devastated, hurt and… angry.”
