A Catholic priest in Rhode Island has defended his decision to ban all lawmakers who voted in favor enshrining abortion protections under state law from receiving communion at his parish.

Recently, Reverend Richard Bucci, a Catholic priest in Rhode Island,  declared that every legislator who voted last year to pass the bill codifying the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision will also not be allowed to act as witnesses to marriage, godparents, or lectors at weddings, funerals or any other church function.

The announcement was listed in the Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick’s weekly bulletin and included dozens of names in the House and Senate. The decision was made a few days after the 47th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade ruling.

Bucci claimed that the legislators had sneaked the legislation through without telling the public, a claim vehemently denied by State Representatives who passed the measure, who campaigned on the issue and whose votes are on the record.

One Representative said of the Church : “They have a problem with the lack of respect for the separation of church and state, and for our votes on behalf of our constituents being punished by a church who protected child abusers.”

Bucci has now doubled down his defense on the ban, while hitting out at those who raised issues of child abuse within the Catholic church.

“We’re not talking about any other moral issue where somebody’s making a comparison between pedophilia and abortion,” Bucci is reported to have said: “Well, pedophilia doesn’t kill anyone, and this does.”

”Pedophilia doesn’t kill anyone, and this does”. 

No wonder church donations and attendance are down.  It virtually endorses pedophilia.  I would argue , with equal conviction,  that bringing a child into this roiling world, unwanted and unloved, is a sin, potentially condemning another human being to a life of misery. This is what their god wants?