A couple of weeks ago, Rev. Richard Bucci of Sacred Heart Church in Rhode Island handed out a flyer with a list of all politicians in the state who backed abortion rights in a law passed last year… insisting that those lawmakers would never be allowed to receive communion in the Church.
When it was pointed out that Bucci’s own church has been at the center of some sexual abuse allegations — so who is he to tell other people about sin — he dismissed it entirely… in the worst possible way.
“We are not talking about any other moral issue, where some may make it a comparison between pedophilia and abortion. Pedophilia doesn’t kill anyone and this does,” Rev. Bucci of Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick said.
There you go. He downplayed pedophilia because it wasn’t murder… even though it destroys lives. He just doesn’t care.
Bucci is now taking back those words. Sort of. But not really.
Speaking with NBC 10 News, Bucci claimed he was taken out of context… before saying all the same things in context.
Bucci said Wednesday that his words were taken out of context, and if anyone supports clergy sex abuse victims, it’s him.
“It was imperfectly said,” Bucci said. “I should have said in general, the child that’s molested does not die physically, and I should have said, but some have.”
That’s not helping.
Yes, some abuse victims have taken their own lives. That’s a serious problem that Bucci only thought about after the fact. Yet he still wants to put that devastation on the same level as a fetus that doesn’t get born. He’s delusional.
SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) issued a statement condemning the non-apology:
… The fact that a person would attempt to use sexual abuse as some sort of foil in an debate about abortion is not only insensitive but ignorant and wrong. His foolish and uneducated comments are an embarrassment to the Diocese of Providence and illustrate Fr. Bucci’s ignorance about the devastating effects that sexual abuse can have. We use the term ‘survivors’ for our group for a reason. Not all victims survive the devastating consequences of sexual abuse by a trusted clergyman. Many take their own lives or overdose on the drugs they use to mute their pain.
To asset that ‘pedophilia doesn’t kill people,’ as Fr. Bucci did, is simply wrong. Even those who do survive often struggle with depression, PTSD, and a host of physical and mental health problems. Catholic officials from the Diocese of Providence should not let this ignorant vitriol stand without comment. At a minimum, they should demand that Fr. Bucci apologize to parishioners and the public.
He won’t do that. Why would he? The people who exalt fetuses always treat the unborn as far more important than the living. And Catholic priests, more than everyone else, love adhering to dogma.
But lay Catholics aren’t the same. Anyone who attends his church could voice their dissent by walking out and never coming back. That, too, would take courage but at least it’s also within the realm of possibility.
(Thanks to @lawowl343 for the link)
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