St. Sabina parishioners urge gun control, protest slaying of CPS student

The Chicago Tribune reports:

With Rev. Michael Pfleger on a compulsory hiatus, St. Sabina Catholic Church parishioners carried on their beleaguered leader's fiery brand of activism at a gun-control demonstration Thursday in the wake of the death of the 26th Chicago Public Schools student killed this school year.

St. Sabina has organized a protest at the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago for each of the previous six slain Chicago Public Schools students, and Pfleger attended all of them.

But the demonstration Thursday for 16-year-old Ignacio Montano, who was gunned down Monday, went on without him.

"What we've been taught by him is to stand for justice," said Randall Blakey, director of ministry at St. Sabina. "We have a responsibility to do that whether the pastor is with us or not."

In the shade of City Hall and the other government buildings near the plaza in front of the Thompson Center, about 30 church members chanted, held up signs and passed out bright fliers explaining their support for stricter gun laws.

Pfleger's name was on the fliers, and he was quoted in a news release about the event. But parishioners said they organized the hourlong demonstration themselves.

How ironic,holding a gun control demonstration in Chicago Alderman Roti's old Ward.