Recent target of NY pro-abortion protests speaks out

Washington D.C., Jul 26, 2021 / 12:45 pm

After pro-abortion protesters obstructed a July 10 pro-life rosary procession in Brooklyn, a priest leading the procession compared it to a “Way of the Cross.”

Pro-life advocate Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, CFR helped lead the “Witness for Life” prayer procession from St. Paul’s Catholic church in Brooklyn to the local Planned Parenthood clinic on July 10. Pro-abortion protesters physically impeded the march and harassed participants; the procession took two hours to traverse seven blocks, according to march leaders.

“When we go to the abortion clinic, it’s as if we’re going to modern-day Calvary, where innocent blood is shed,” Fr. Moscinski told EWTN Pro-Life Weekly in an interview on Thursday, July 22. “And our procession there, on that day, was kind of like a Way of the Cross for us.”

“I was kind of thinking of the abuse that Our Lord suffered when He was carrying His cross to Calvary,” he said, noting that “we were all in a spirit of prayer there, we were praying the rosary as we went.”

“So it was difficult, but we persevered, and we did finally get there.”

Brooklyn’s Witness for Life day of prayer, which occurs on the second Saturday of each month, normally begins with an 8 a.m. Mass at St. Paul’s church. A rosary procession to the local Planned Parenthood clinic follows Mass. 

However, on July 10, the group New York City for Abortion Rights (NYCFAR) gathered outside St. Paul’s before the morning Mass and chanted throughout the Mass. Some of their chants outside the church included “Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide,” as well as “St. Paul’s Church harasses patients” and “Free abortion on demand, can we win it? Yes we can.” 

Protestors held signs with phrases including “God loves abortion,” and “This church harasses women.” 

NYCFAR targeted Moscinski in flyers as the “leader” of the pro-life march and described him as “far from peaceful.”

Photos of the procession showed pro-abortion advocates holding signs and smoking cigarettes in the face of Fr. Moscinski. EWTN Pro-Life Weekly host Catherine Hadro asked Moscinski how he found peace amidst the chaos 

“We had just come from celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We received Jesus in Holy Communion, and He’s the source of our peace and our strength,” he said. “And when I was looking at those people, I was thinking ‘these people are not the enemy. They’re deceived.’”

When asked what more pro-life advocates could do to fight abortion, Fr. Moscinski said that “prayer and fasting” is necessary. 

“We need to discover again the humility and courage to pray and fast,” he said. “And I think that’s something we could all do a lot better.”

“Pro-life is the pre-eminent issue in the United States, and every Catholic has to be actively engaged in the pro-life movement in some way,” he said in the July 24 interview. “Not everybody can do everything,” he said, “but everybody has to do at least something.”

The July 10 encounter between pro-abortion protestors and “Witness for Life” was the second such incident in as many months. At the previous month’s Witness for Life event, NYCFAR organized a protest as well.

Moscinski told Hadro the situation for the pro-life movement in the area is “challenging and difficult,” noting the almost 300 abortions that take place each day in the state. 

Moscinski has been arrested multiple times in “red rose rescues,” where he enters abortion clinics and attempts to counsel women seeking abortion to choose life. 

“Our measure of our love for Christ is determined by what we do to save the least among us,” Moscinski said, “because the Lord said whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did to me.”