Prominent Chicago priest accused of sexual abuse of minor

CHICAGO (AP) — An activist Catholic priest in Chicago has been asked to step aside from his pastoral duties while allegations that he sexually abused a minor decades ago are investigated. Cardinal Blase Cupich told parishioners at Faith Community of Saint Sabina on Chicago’s South Side that the Rev. Michael Pfleger has agreed to relinquish his pastoral duties during the investigation. The accuser is a man in his late 40s who said in a statement via his attorney that Pfleger abused him on two occasions in the late 1980s during choir rehearsals. Pfleger responded in his own statement that he is “completely innocent.”