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By CARYN ROUSSEAU
Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO  –  Barack Obama again distanced himself Thursday from a controversial sermon given at his Chicago church, saying he was “deeply disappointed” to hear a priest mock Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tears just before the New Hampshire primary.Obama supporter and Chicago activist the Rev. Michael Pfleger apologized Thursday for the sermon given Sunday at Trinity United Church of Christ, during which he said Clinton cried in January because she felt “entitled” to the Democratic nomination and that a “black man is stealing my show.”

Obama issued a statement saying he was “deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger’s divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn’t reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause.”

Pfleger, the white pastor of the predominantly black Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church on the city’s Southwest side, said Thursday he regretted his choice of words.

“These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama’s life and message and I am deeply sorry if they offended Senator Clinton or anyone else who saw them,” Pfleger said.

Clinton’s eyes welled up and her voice broke as she talked with voters in a restaurant about her campaign for the presidency on the eve of New Hampshire’s primary.

In a sermon getting increasing play on the Internet, Pfleger said Clinton expected to win the nomination before Obama’s sudden popularity.

“She just always thought, ‘This is mine. I’m Bill’s wife. I’m white.’ And then, out of nowhere, came ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama.” And she said, ‘Oh damn, where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. The black man is stealing my show.’”

Pfleger’s statements were met with rounds of applause and in some cases standing ovations from the congregation. The priest went on to parody Clinton’s tears, sobbing and wiping his face with a handkerchief.

“She wasn’t the only one crying,” he said. “There was a whole lot of white people crying.”

In March, Pfleger invited Obama’s embattled former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to speak at an event at Saint Sabina, embracing Wright in the church.

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Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.