Father Fidelis Moscinski (lower left, standing behind the cross), a well-known pro-life activist and priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR) is seen during a tense standoff between pro-life and pro-abortion demonstrators in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022. The pro-life marchers were trying to reach a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic where they planned to hold a prayer vigil, and the pro-abortion demonstrators were trying to block their path. | Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Franciscan Friar receives 6 months in Federal Prison
Father Fidelis entered the courtroom calm and collected. There were around 20 Pro Life supporters in the courtroom there to support Father for the sentencing.
Judge Steven Tiscione came in and asked for any statements on what the sentencing should be. Father Fidelis gave a powerful statement on the dignity of the unborn as well as the atrocities committed by Planned Parenthood. His full remarks are here:
“Your Honor, I offer the following comments in order to assist you in imposing the most appropriate sentence in my case.
My actions on July 7th 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. Furthermore, these bloody and violent acts also cause grave spiritual and psychological harm to the mother of the child. All of my actions then and now are directed solely towards preventing the murder of defenseless children and the wounding of their mothers.
On that day 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. But perhaps this practice of Planned Parenthood should not surprise us since its founder, Margaret Sanger was a known racist and eugenicist who once opined that “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.”
Now that Roe V. Wade has been overturned and we have been delivered from the delusion that abortion was ever a constitutional right we are still sadly burdened with the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. This pseudo-law seeks to cloak the act of killing preborn children under the euphemistic and Orwellian language of “reproductive health care.” I am 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. I would like you to know that I find the pernicious error of legal positivism both logically incoherent and immensely destructive in practice. The tragic and shameful history of legalized slavery in the South and the more recent genocides of the twentieth century should be more than sufficient to show us the folly of simply accepting something as “legal” because it is the product of some legislative or judicial process. 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?
If you are, as I suspect, unwilling to correct your earlier mistaken judgment finding me guilty, then I suggest that you can still somewhat mitigate the injustice this court has perpetrated by giving me the most lenient sentence possible. Thank you.”
Some in the audience were visibly cringing when Father mentioned Planned Parenthood's racist past as well as their scandal in selling fetal tissue.
Attorney Dennis Ring, who represents Father Fidelis, gave his opening remarks. He talked about how Father Fidelis peacefully protested abortion stating “The only thing that Father did was lay down and pray the rosary.” He then went on to talk about the works of service that Father Fidelis does by his vocation to the Franciscan priesthood. This man has given up his life to serve the poor, he has given up the chance of having a family, of planning his own life, of even earning income all for the greatest gift, to serve God with his whole heart. The lawyer went on to talk about the hypocrisy of the Federal Government especially considering the 2020 riots where there was “arsons, homicides, burnings, thousands of people engaged in it and none were prosecuted.” The Prosecution never touched on this point nor made any mention of it. “Father Fidelis’s only weapon was a rosary not a molotov cocktail” sent shivers down the spine of at least one of the pro life prayer supporters. The lawyer ended his powerful discourse by talking about the political motivation behind this unjust persecution. The room was left speechless.
Next the Pro abortion attorney prosecutor Lauren Bowman stood up to give her statement. She could not say that he was violent because he wasn’t but instead wanted to paint the picture that he would “Profit from his crime, and get credibility from his community” for the Lock and Block. She even stated that what he did “wasn’t violent but it was a crime” and that “it was an escalation of decades of work” in “interfering with other health care centers.” She never once mentioned that Planned Parenthood kills children. “He is in need of specific deterrence. He needs to be deterred from acting like this again” she uttered. However even the pro abortion prosecutor acknowledged Father’s work with the poor stating that he “dedicated himself to a life of service” but quickly pointed out that didn’t justify what he did. She closed her statement by saying “He has shown no remorse for his actions…… The FACE act was made to regulate conduct not speech.”
Finally the judge stepped up to give his remarks “I am faced with a defendant who has a large criminal past but also who has given himself to a lot of service to the poor which shows he is worthy of praise and capable of doing good works to others.” However the tone shifted and we could sense the inevitable was about to come. “The defendant is not a stranger to the criminal justice system” the judge started to talk about other Rescues Father has performed in the past. The Judge notes that the amount of Rescues that Father had prayerfully engaged in would make him a category 5 criminal. For the record Father has not committed any crimes, trying to stop a murder is not a crime nor should the state try to prosecute anyone who tries to come between the hand of the butcher and an innocent life. The judge sentenced him to the maximum of 6 months of Federal Prison with a very strict probation. However, Father was not immediately taken into custody and will have to self surrender at an undisclosed later date sometime in the near future. The injustice hit all the supporters and there was an audible gasps mixed with the clinking of rosary beads.
Please note that because of the lack of recording devices permitted in the courtroom the quotes were hastily scribbled down and may not reflect verbatim what each person said. We try to the best of our ability to copy down what we hear as closely as we can.