Controversial West Warwick priest seriously injured in Mass. crash

By Brian Amaral
Providence Journal
March 4, 2020

https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20200304/controversial-west-warwick-priest-seriously-injured-in-mass-crash

A West Warwick priest who’s been in the news recently for comments on abortion and pedophilia was seriously injured in Lynn, Massachusetts, Tuesday afternoon when his vehicle veered off the road and hit a tree and a pole.

The Diocese of Providence confirmed Wednesday morning that the Rev. Richard Bucci was the person injured in the crash, and requested prayers for Bucci, his family, friends and the parish.

Bucci, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick, was freed from the wreckage and taken by helicopter to Salem Hospital, then to another hospital, according to the Massachusetts State Police.

In February, Bucci made news when he barred Rhode Island lawmakers who had voted to codify abortion rights in the state from receiving communion. He also said they could not serve as a marriage witness, godparent, or a lector at weddings, funerals or other church functions.

In an interview with WJAR about the move, Bucci said: “We’re not talking about any other moral issue, where some may make a comparison between pedophilia and abortion. Well, pedophilia doesn’t kill anyone, and this does.”

His comments — focusing on the part about pedophilia not killing anyone — rocketed around the national media, drawing condemnation from people who said he was minimizing the toll of child sexual abuse.

In a interview afterward with The Providence Journal, Bucci clarified his comments, acknowledging that child sexual abuse can indeed be fatal. Although he maintained that abortion is worse, he personally knows of someone who died by suicide after being abused, he said.

“I was focusing on the fact that there is no future at all for an unborn child who is aborted, whereas a child who is molested, with a great deal of effort and prayer and therapy and medicine, can at least lead a life that can accomplish things,” Bucci said.

Before 9 a.m. Wednesday, the faithful started to file into a chapel at Sacred Heart for morning Mass. They were there to pray for Bucci’s recovery.

“We will not stop our prayers,” she said.

Philomena Tomasso was there Wednesday morning, as she is every morning. This time she was praying for a man she called a “great priest” who takes his time and doesn’t go too quickly through the prayers.

“He’s a priest’s priest,” she said. “He really, really prays.”

Tomasso, who lives in Warwick, has been going to Sacred Heart for all her 93 years.

Tomasso and dozens of other people crowded the chapel. The Rev. Jeremy Rodrigues, the administrative secretary to Bishop Thomas Tobin and the diocese’s director of divine worship, celebrated Mass Wednesday morning in the crowded chapel, covering for Bucci and praying for him.

“Brothers and sisters, today we offer Holy Mass for the health and safety of Father Bucci, our pastor,” Rodrigues said. “May the Lord give him the strength and the perseverance to bring him back to good health so he may come back to minister to this parish.”

Ann Hagan Webb, who said she was abused by a now-dead Sacred Heart priest as a child and who was among those who criticized Bucci’s comments last month, said in an email: “This morning I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear of Rev. Richard Bucci’s horrific car accident yesterday. I send him best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.”