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Father Fidelis MoscinskiLifeSiteNews/Jim Hale

For our coverage of the Southfield Red Rose Rescue trial, please click here for Day 1, here for Day 2, and here for Day 3

(LifeSiteNews) — Four Red Rose Rescuers have been sentenced to prison for counseling women at a Michigan abortion business. Two more have been sentenced to probation.

Father Fidelis Moscinski, CFR,  Matthew Connolly, Dr. Monica Miller, and Laura Gies have all received custodial sentences from Judge Cynthia Meagher Arvant today. They were taken immediately to Oakland County Jail, according to the Red Rose Rescue Facebook page.

Fr. Fidelis was given 270 days – 90 days for each of the three charges leveled against him, which he will be serving concurrently. He will thus be in prison for three months. His heroic pro-life witness was recently profiled by LifeSiteNews’ Senior Correspondent Jim Hale.

A witness to the sentencing hearing reported that the judge had pressed Fr. Fidelis, a priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who has dedicated his life to the unborn, about how he presents himself. The observer said the judge asked rhetorically whether he was committing “fraud” by entering abortion facilities in street clothes rather than his Franciscan habit. The witness relayed that the judge had insinuated that by then coming to the courtroom in his habit, Fr. Fidelis was being “theatrical” and “disingenuous.”

Matthew Connolly also received three 90-day sentences, which he will serve concurrently. Laura Gies received two 60-day sentences, which she will serve concurrently. Dr. Monica Miller received two 45-day sentences, which she too will serve concurrently. When Miller asked to defer the date of her incarceration, so she could attend a cancer treatment follow-up appointment, the judge refused, saying, “You knew what you were doing when you broke the law.”

Like their companions Elizabeth Wagi and Jacob Gregor, who received lighter penalties, Moscinski and Connolly were pronounced guilty of “trespassing, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace/interfering with a business” on February 24, 2023 at the 46th District Courthouse in Southfield, Michigan.

Miller and Gies were pronounced guilty of “trespassing and resisting arrest.”

Wagi received 18 months’ probation with fines and 10 days of community service. She was ordered not to go anywhere near an abortion facility or her co-defendants. Gregor got 12 months’ probation with fines. He too was told to say away from abortion businesses and his co-defendants.

The Red Rose Rescue Facebook page reported:

In his statement to [Judge] Arvant, Fr. Fidels stated [frankly] that, ‘the rights of the preborn were trampled upon in this case… And the court failed to respect the law of God over the laws of man… The 5th Commandment ‘thou shall not kill,’ applies to the preborn.’ As he said this, members of the court gallery began to applaud, but the judge ordered silence.

Before he was led away the Franciscan Priest boldly said aloud: ‘Jesus Christ is King.’ Then he turned and offered his priestly blessing to the packed courtroom of pro-life supporters.

Dr. Monica Miller in her statement held up a large color image of the mutilated remains of a preborn baby killed by dismemberment abortion, and showed it to the judge, prosecutor, court personnel, and the entire crowd in the courtroom.

The judge ordered her to stop.

She did not.

Miller exclaimed, ‘The whole problem with this trial and today’s hearing is that the preborn being exterminated are treated as invisible to the court, they don’t exist, and are deemed unworthy of justice. These are lies.’…

Laura Gies quoted Solzhenitsyn to the judge, comparing how communist totalitarian governments of his day pushed lies just as abortion supporters in the U.S. government do today.

‘A lie may come into the world, it may run through the world… But it will not run through me.’

Being taken away by the bailiff she cried out, ‘Viva Cristo Rey!’ which were the last words of all the rescuers’ statements as Laura, the final witness, was then led away in handcuffs.

Her resounding praises were the culmination of the sentencing hearing for the rescuers.

Defense attorney Robert Muise said those given prison sentences have been taken to Oakland County Jail. According to the Red Rose Rescue Facebook page, Muise “plans to appeal this ruling on numerous legal and technical procedural grounds, especially the clear violation of due process rights.”

The Southfield trial stemmed from a Red Rose Rescue at the Northland Family Planning abortion center, one of three abortion centers owned and operated by Renee Chelian, on April 23, 2021.

RELATED: Pro-life activists assaulted by security guards in Michigan abortion facility

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