Rev. Michael Pfleger, a priest on the south side of Chicago, has endorsed State Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago) in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush as the first district Congressional representative.

In 2021, Collins co-sponsored HB 370, which repealed Illinois's Parental Notice of Abortion Act in 2021, Votesmart.org reported.

CatholicVote president Brian Burch points out the Archdiocese of Chicago expressly forbids priests from engaging in any kind of political partisanship. Burch also points out that Collins support abortion, which is directly in conflict with Catholic teaching.

The Archdiocese of Chicago prohibits any communications that contain "direct or indirect support for or opposition to any candidate for elective public office; distribution of campaign literature or biased voter educational material; publication or transmission of paid political advertising, biased coverage of candidate activity or opinions that endorse or oppose a particular candidate, endorsements of candidates or political parties."  

Pfleger is one of the most popular priests on the Chicago south side, the Sun-Times reported.

"Catholic priests are expressly forbidden from engaging in partisan electioneering, both under the law and according to rules enforced by the Archdiocese of Chicago," Burch said in a statement. "Yet Fr. Pfleger, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has openly endorsed a candidate for public office in direct violation of these restrictions. His support is even more problematic given that the candidate supports abortion and other issues that contravene Catholic social teaching. We hope the Archdiocese will quickly correct this."