Around New England

Rhode Island Catholic Priest Hands Out List of Pro-Abortion Pols, Says They Can’t Receive Communion

February 1, 2020

The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in West Warwick, Rhode Island issued a flier the mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade listing the names of every state representative and state senator who voted for a bill last year making abortion legal though all nine months of pregnancy.

Father Richard Bucci, 72, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, didn’t back down when contacted by The Providence Journal, saying his parishioners should know about their elected representatives.

“They call me ‘Father’ so that I may have an influence in their lives, and this is a serious issue of life and death,” Bucci said, according to The Providence Journal.

Several pro-abortion Catholic legislators are howling in indignation, with one telling the Providence Journal that the pastor and the bishop “need to be reminded that the U.S. Constitution requires the separation of church and state.”

A spokesman for Bishop Thomas Tobin, the bishop of Providence, issued a statement that didn’t endorse the priest’s actions but didn’t criticize him, either.

“Because the Church entrusts to each pastor the duty of teaching, sanctifying, and governing his parish, the daily pastoral and administrative decisions are made at the local parish level,” the bishop’s spokesman’s statement says, in part, according to the Providence Journal.