A Rhode Island Catholic priest denied communion to lawmakers who supported the state's abortion rights Sunday and defended his decision by telling local TV station WJAR, "pedophilia doesn't kill anyone and this does."
"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. Richard Bucci of Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick told the station.
The 72-year-old priest also said there are more children who have been killed by abortion than have been abused.
Bucci last week released a letter naming 44 lawmakers who supported the Reproductive Privacy Act and stated those individuals would be banned from acting as witnesses to marriage, performing readings at weddings and funerals, and serving as godparents.
State Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, a Democrat who supported the bill, slammed Bucci's pedophilia comments.
"When he says that pedophilia doesn't kill people, well, he clearly doesn't understand," she told CBS News. "He should've come to the statehouse and listened to the testimonies because there are lot of victims who are no longer with us. The injured voices that I heard — they've stolen their childhoods. They've practically destroyed their lives. And the ones we still hear from are the lucky ones because they're the ones who are still alive; they didn't die of an overdose or suicide. You know, there's plenty of those that never made it long enough to come forward."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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