A Franciscan friar and two other anti-abortion activists were each sentenced to three months behind bars on charges they blocked women from entering a Westchester County clinic in November, prosecutors said.
Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah said she pushed for the maximum penalty of 90 days apiece for the three, who were found guilty in March of going into All Women’s Medical in White Plains and refusing to leave for two hours.
“Abortion is legal in the state of New York and interfering with a patient’s right to access medical and reproductive care is a crime,” Rocah said in a statement. “I will use the full force of my office to protect patients and reproductive rights here in Westchester County.”
Christopher “Fidelis” Moscinski, 52, a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, quoted Bible verses and pleaded “the blood of Jesus,” a phrase used to invoke the power of Christ, on the courtroom and Judge John Collins after Tuesday’s sentencing, according to Red Rose Rescue, a religious group affiliated with all three men.
“Isaiah said woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Woe to those who call abortion a right,” Moscinski said, the group claimed in a Facebook post.
Moscinski then is said to have told Collins, “You disallowed the justification defense and that injustice was compounded by the jury and also by the sentencing you have given, I plead the blood of Jesus on this courtroom.”
“You quoted Judgment Day in your case and today is your judgment day,” the group claimed the judge replied.
The group said the quotes may not be exact because they were “hastily written down” in a courtroom where electronics weren’t allowed.
Moscinski, listed as a Bronx resident, was convicted by a jury of misdemeanor criminal trespassing alongside 40-year-old Matthew Connolly of Minnesota and 52-year-old William Goodman of Wisconsin following a brief trial in March, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News reported….
The above comes from an Aug. 3 story in the New York Post.
Self-righteous twerp with a martyr syndrome. Jesus never would have done what that priest did. Crucifixions were happening all the time outside Jerusalem. Jesus never tried to stop them. He let it be but tried to change people’s hearts. This priest isn’t winning souls and he’s not saving babies. Try a different strategy. Now he gets to sit in jail. Some good he’ll do there. The kicker would be if he writes a memoir while he’s in prison, thinking he’s Mandela or something.
OH look a leftist that supports killing babies… wipe out anti-Catholics trolls all of them
Hmmmm… didn’t Jesus have something to say about pharisees and scribe hypocrites?
Maybe you were out that day when they covered that in catechism class?
You mean a self-righteous twerp with a martyr syndrome like Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi or John the Baptist?
What are you doing to stop the slaughter of innocents?
(And, no one is asking you to lose your head over it. Just do something meaningful and, to some degree at least, effective.)
This is unfair! They should’ve gotten longer sentences.
Oh, the horror, the leftists (including this supposedly impartial DA) think that the Friar & friends, should have been sentenced to life imprisonment, for impinging on the rights of Abortionists. What complete arrogance from the abortionists!! Pro Abortion people are holding illegal parades, blocking offices, attacking members of Congress, vandalizing Churches, spray painting slogans, committing arson on pro life facilities, assaulting pro life people, all without any fear of arrest or penalty, because DAs like this person, believe their feminist views are untouchable. They are free to commit crimes in the name of “women’s rights”…
They got the max.
Here is a true son of St. Francis! The Franciscans of old were not afraid to preach the true religion to the Muslims in North Africa.
The difference is Saint Francis tried to convert those he preached to. This priest was only making a show. Big difference.
We know they meant well but
It is not appropriate to physically block women who are trying to see their Physician.
They could be going there for OB prenatal care or Family Medicine by a DO – Osteopath
according to the website in addition to pregnancy terminations.
diff, follow my advice, “Who am I to judge?”
Matthew Connelly, 40, William Goodman, 52, and Christopher Moscinski, 52, were found guilty Thursday of misdemeanor criminal trespass after a three-day trial for illegally entering All Women’s Medical in White Plains and refusing to leave for two hours, prosecutors said.
The three men, affiliated with the religious group Red Rose Rescue, had to be “physically carried” out of the office after ignoring warnings to leave by medical staff and local cops, the county District Attorney Mimi Rocah said in a news release.
One of the men was on the floor, blocking the entrance to the office, while the other two refused to leave the waiting room, according to the release. All three were “physically carried” out of the office, Rocah said.
Not all anti-abortion activism is good
For some reason, I’m able to up or down vote. This has happened before on this site. Also, I am sometimes unable to have my comments posted, even though I am respectful.
You don’t see Lila Rose doing this kind of thing. Prison would put a damper on her itinerary.
In the fight for life, not everyone is called to serve in the same way. (Just as, in the military, not all are infantry, pilots or sailors.). Some work in life-affirming pregnancy centers (including helping babies and mothers after birth), some (like Lila Rose) work in educating and persuading the public, some work in the political aspects of the movement, some pray and counsel in front of abortion clinics and others are involved in non-violent direct action (like this Franciscan friar). And, many do more than one of those things. A friar is more likely called to civil disobedience and jail time than a mother with young children.
It seems a more important question than what others are doing is what are you and I doing?
Ora et labora.
Many of the young men doing the shooting were bullied in school or elsewhere. That obviously doesn’t excuse the behavior but those doing the bullying bear some of the responsibility.
And once again, today Saturday, a mob of pro abortionists threatened Catholics going to Mass at Old St. Marys in NYC. That is not only considered acceptable conduct by the Pro Aborts, they glory in blocking access to parishioners. So where are the police and DAs in this criminal conduct? “OH, that’s different! say the DA’s about pro Abort violence. That is our side! It’s Ok to assault Catholics and vandalize Churches! We don’t have to do anything! Hear that DAs? Your silence about Pro Abort criminal conduct is not acceptable. Equal justice under the law, means three months in prison for Pro Abort criminal conduct.