The Rev. Paul Kalchik—a Catholic priest removed from a Chicago church after burning a rainbow flag, despite being told not to—told conservative Catholic news website Church Militant that he has gone into hiding to avoid having archdiocese leaders committing him to a mental facility, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Kalchik claimed that Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich sent two of his top deputies last Friday to take him away from Resurrection Catholic Church, 3043 N. Francisco Ave. (The church is the result of a 1992 merger of St. Veronica and St. Francis Xavier churches.)
Archdiocese spokeswoman Anne Maselli told the Sun-Times that the decision to remove Kalchik “has been in motion for some time and is not directly due to the flag-burning.”
The Sun-Times article is at chicago.suntimes.com/news/flag-burning-priest-kalchik-hiding-cupich-catholic-church-lgbtq/.