Fr. Fidelis Moscinski sentenced to six months in prison after blocking access to abortion center

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Father Fidelis sentenced to six months in prison after blocking access to abortion center
The pro-life priest said he locked the gates of the facility because Planned Parenthood ‘is in the business of killing.’



Father Fidelis Moscinski
LifeSiteNews/Jim Hale

Jun 28, 2023
(LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life priest Fr. Fidelis Moscinski was sentenced to six months in prison for blocking access to a New York abortion facility in attempt to save innocent unborn children.

On Tuesday, the priest was dealt the punishment in a federal court, months after being found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Moscinski is frequently involved in Red Rose Rescues and “lock and blocks” — forms of pro-life advocacy in which volunteers enter the waiting room of abortion facilities, or block access to said facilities, in a final attempt to dissuade women from killing their babies. The “lock and block” in question took place on July 7, 2022, in Hempstead, New York.

“It is almost surreal in these court rooms to listen to the prosecution and the judges,” pro-lifer Theresa Bonapartis, who was present at the sentencing, wrote in a statement shared with LifeSiteNews. “Father [Moscinski] is made out to be a career criminal while the slaughter of the innocent human life and the destruction of their mothers and families that takes place is never even mentioned or allowed to mentioned.”

The judge reportedly claimed that Moscinski has a “criminal past” and must be given “deterrents from acting like this again.” Bonapartis shared that the judge rejected the prosecuting attorney’s request that the priest have “restrictions … placed on him with pretty much anyone who is pro-life” during his probation but “compar[ed] restrictions of a crime family not being allowed to associate with others in the mafia with pro-lif[ers].”

“The prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence and unsurprisingly that is what he got. He is not in jail yet but will be waiting to hear when and where he needs to surrender,” Bonapartis wrote. “Of course, there is a basic misunderstanding of the reason and the sacrifice on a spiritual level to what Father (and others) do. No matter your views on rescue, please keep him in your prayers as he lays down his life for the moms and babies.”

As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, Moscinski was charged and found guilty after he locked the gates of a Planned Parenthood facility, preventing cars from entering the driveway and the killing center. Federal charges were brought against the priest after local authorities only dealt him an ordinance violation immediately following the incident.

In court on Tuesday, Moscinski told the judge that “my actions on July 7, 2022 were done because Planned Parenthood as an organization is in the business of killing. Every procured abortion that occurs on its premises constitutes the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.”

Moscinski shared that “I was also aware of the evidence compiled by the House Select Panel on Infant Lives that Planned Parenthood, contrary to federal law, profits from the harvesting and selling of the body parts of unborn children. This grisly trade in human tissues and organs is deemed by many as revolting and sickening since it reduces human beings to mere objects that can be bought and sold.”

The priest noted that, despite Roe’s reversal last year, “we are still sadly burdened with the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act,” further arguing that he is “not guilty of violating this law because this law cannot be seen as anything other than null and void since it attempts to give legal protection to actions which are intrinsically evil and unjust.”

“I recognize that this view may not be shared by your Honor,” Moscinski continued. “I would like you to know that I find the pernicious error of legal positivism both logically incoherent and immensely destructive in practice”

“Would it not be much better to acknowledge the truth that there must be a necessary and intrinsic connection between our civil laws and the natural moral law written on the human heart, knowable by human reason, and revealed authoritatively by God Himself in the Ten Commandments?”

Moscinski, along with Red Rose Rescuer Laura Gies, will be in court again in Long Island, New York, on Friday, facing separate misdemeanor charges for which he was convicted on February 10.