RI Priest At Center Of Controversy Seriously Injured In MA Crash

WEST WARWICK, RI — The Catholic priest criticized for his controversial comments about abortion, pedophilia and communion was seriously injured in a crash in Lynn. Massachusetts on Tuesday, the Diocese of Providence said in a statement Wednesday morning. Father Richard Bucci, the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick, received pushback last month after refusing to offer communion to Rhode Island lawmakers who supported the state's newest abortion-rights law.

The crash happen on the Lynnway at Market Street around 1:30 p.m., according to Massachusetts State Police. No other vehicles were involved, and Bucci was seriously injured.

"The Diocese requests prayers for Father Bucci, and his family, friends and parishioners during this difficult time," the statement read.

Bucci was embroiled in controversy in February after publishing an open letter in the church's Sunday bulletin saying that Catholic lawmakers who supported the recently passed abortion rights bill had no right to receive the Eucharist, WJAR reported. When questioned about the stance, Bucci doubled down, saying the Catholic Church has always taken an anti-abortion stance and that doing so is "slaughtering innocent children."

"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," Bucci told WJAR.

Bishop Thomas Tobin later weighed in on the issue, tweeting that "no one has an absolute right to receive Holy Communion."

"To do so, a person has to be canonically eligible and spiritually disposed. In other words, in institutional and spiritual union with the Church," Tobin wrote.

Tobin's tweet fanned the flames of the controversy.

"The Sacraments are fundamental rights of the baptized, not privileges granted by the clergy," one person said in reply.

The next day, Tobin released an official statement, calling for calm discourse rather than personal attacks and saying that while "it is never acceptable to underestimate the harm caused by sexual abuse of minors ... abortion is also a sinful, immoral act."

"In the current public discussion, I urge all parties to refrain from unhelpful, inflammatory rhetoric, and to reflect personally and prayerfully on the consequences of these grave matters," he said in part.