CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The man who accused St. Sabina Church’s Fr. Mike Pfleger of sex abuse is now being joined by his brother making the same accusation.
The brothers allege the sexual abuse by Fr. Mike Pfleger started happening when they were 12- or 13-years old -- in the early 1970s when Pfleger was still in the seminary. Both men are in their 60s now.
The brothers said the abuse began while Pfleger was working at Precious Blood Church on the West Side as the choir director.
The younger brother, the one who first made the allegation, told CBS 2 he carried this around with him for almost 50 years, because “I was embarrassed. I was to the point that I couldn’t forgive myself, because I blamed myself all these years.”
The brothers grew up on the West Side and were raised by a struggling single mother. They said sometimes they were bullied, and sought refuge in the church’s sanctuary. The two said Pfleger offered them security.
The older brother told CBS 2 he saw Pfleger as a father figure.
“I would describe my case as a kid looking for someone who cared about him, and I think he took that angle,” he said, “and I felt he made me feel a little bit special.”
Of the abuse he alleges, the older brother said: “I don’t describe it as forceful in any way. It was kind of a slow grooming process.”
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Both brothers said they had no idea, until now, that the other was being abused, and said much of it happened in Pfeger’s room in Precious Blood’s rectory, where they would often stay overnight. That is where the older brother said Pfleger first abused him.
“I was in bed, He crawled into the same bed. This is basically the routine – coming into the same bed,” the older brother said, “and it started with fondling.”
He said the assaults got worse from there.
“For me, it went on from the ages of 12 or 13 through about 18," he said.
The older brother went on and said the abuse continued even after Pfleger left that parish.
“It happened at Precious Blood. It happened at the seminary. It happened at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It happened at St. Sabina,” he told CBS 2. “And there’s adults around all the time.”
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Despite the sleepovers and attention, the brothers said no adult or priest ever raised a question. The younger brother said one adult around at the time was Wilton Gregory, now Archbishop of Washington, who became the first African-American Cardinal after his elevation last year and was at Glenview’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help at the same time as Pfleger.
He told CBS 2 he decided to come forward with the allegations after seeing Gregory talk about the priest sex abuse scandal in an interview a couple of months ago.
“And instantly, tears started coming,” the younger brother said. “And my answer was, to that question to Wilton Gregory was, I wonder if you’ll go after Mike...And I told myself I’m not going to go into not another year carrying this burden. I’m not going to go, not another day without telling someone.”
The younger brother admitted to sending a letter to Fr. Pfleger on Dec. 30, asking for a one-time $20,000 payment. He claimed it was to see if Pfleger would send it, and thus admit his guilt.
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But, Pfleger’s lawyers said it was attempted extortion and that the priest has never abused anyone.
"Father Pfleger has never abused them or anybody else. These allegations are false and are simply being made for money. This is a shakedown," the lawyers said in a statement.