Mark Houck felt the 'hand of God' upon him while facing federal prosecution: 'Suffering for Jesus'
CP: How did your family's church react to the news of your arrest and that you were facing federal charges? How did they support you all during this time?
Houck: You got to think of the Catholic Church this way: We have priests and bishops. We have a Pope, and we have clergy that consists of deacons and priests that are ordained, and they run the churches within the archdiocese where I live in Philadelphia.
My particular parish has one priest and multiple deacons, maybe three deacons. Everybody else are lay people, not ordained people. So we have friends that are in our co-op. Certainly, people were reaching out that were citizens like us that were just as concerned. We had a lot of love coming forward from that circle.
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So when you say church, you might be thinking one thing, and I might be thinking another. My priest didn't reach out to me until Monday. He did come out to the house and bless my home. We reclaimed the home with the family, blessed the children. He prayed with us, and that was great.
I did have a cardinal from Rome come to my home. He was in the States, and he was the former prefect of the Doctrine of Faith under former Pope Benedict XVI. So he was like the No. 2 man in Rome back then.
He came, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the German bishop, came and blessed the family, condemned it as a prelate in the Catholic Church, and a couple of other bishops nationally. The one in Tyler, Texas, Bishop Joseph Strickland came out, condemned it publicly, and Bishop Joe Coffey, who was in the archdiocese, a military friend of mine who lives in the Philadelphia area.
CP: Now, what parish do you attend?
Houck: Yeah, it's St. Agnes in Sellersville, Pennsylvania.
CP: How did you see God at work during the trial, and how do you see Him at work now that you're speaking on the life issue, probably through a bigger platform than you had before?
Houck: Well, that's the best story of it all. We saw this from the very moment of the indictment that God's hand was upon us. We felt His presence; never felt a lack of peace because He would surround us with that, and we surrendered what we could not control to Him; we gave it over to Him.
Of course, we were stressed, and of course, we had a lot of anxiety. But in the midst of all that, there was still an abounding peace that was, "hey, we're suffering for Jesus; we're being persecuted."
"Blessed are those who are persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of God," right? So we knew that we were being chosen, and we felt like old Uncle Mordecai talking to Esther that perhaps for such a time as this, we were called to something special here.
When the trial began, of course, there was a lot of concern. I truly believed that I was going to be found guilty and imprisoned. But we moved forward, trusting that, even if I was put in prison, that it would be for the best. That God would be sovereign and that God would allow good to come from it for me and for my wife and children.
When it came to the jury deliberation, they had a juror that would not deliberate. We found this out later, but it was deadlocked after the first day of deliberation. There was a juror who said, "The man's guilty, and I don't need to talk about anything."
Others did not feel that way. The judge interviewed every juror individually, which is never done in a trial. It's as if God personally took this juror and removed him. So they brought this alternate in, and within one hour of deliberation, there was a unanimous not guilty verdict.
Despite most of the jurors having used Planned Parenthood's services, most of them supported Planned Parenthood, they saw the truth for what it was: This was a man protecting his son.
We took great joy and relief in the freedom that we were granted. But it should be said that there was an inward freedom that was going to be there regardless. Thankfully, we had the outward freedom as well. We could move back to our lives after it was held hostage for four-plus months.
CP: And how is your family doing now that the trial is over? Have you guys talked much about what happened the day you were arrested, and how are your kids coping?
Houck: We look at the children as just trying to create normalcy for them. We don't try to bring it up unless they want to talk about it. I mean, they've had interviews, which have helped them. So we just look upon them as kids, and they need to be kids and not worry.
Obviously, there was a lot of inquiry: "How are you doing? How are you feeling after the arrest?" We did some healing work with them, and we know we're going to have to be open to more counseling with them as we move throughout their lives.
CP: Why do you think the DOJ pursued a case against you even though local authorities dismissed the charges?
Houck: That is the million-dollar question. I think the goal of the Department of Justice was to humiliate and intimidate pro-life America and obviously humiliate and intimidate me and my family.
And I think, to a degree, they accomplished that because a lot of pro-lifers wouldn't come out to abortion facilities in Pennsylvania. Even to this day, even though we were acquitted, there's still an element of fear there, even though we have case law.
I think we needed to get that case law and show the Department of Justice and the Biden administration that they were wrong and that this was an overreach. And that's where now the congressional hearings are going to expose that even further.
So I think that was the chain of events that really was ushered forth through an anticipation of the overturning of Roe v Wade, the ultimate overturning Roe v Wade, and the Biden administration declaring essentially war on pro-life America.
CP: Can you give some more details on what your plans are now? Are you going to focus on holding the government accountable? And how have your efforts with that been going so far? I understand that you had an interview with a congressional committee this morning.
We're just resuming mission. We went back to the clinics; I'll be there again tomorrow same location. Now we have a bigger platform than ever. I'm speaking in areas where I normally would not have had an invitation to, a lot of interviews, as you can imagine.
At the same time, we have to expose it. So we're going to pursue justice. Even though the government has a lot of unity with stuff like this, they need to be held accountable.
We'll move strategically with counsel to do the best we can to bring this to justice. Obviously, I want justice for my children more than anything. I want justice for my wife, and I'll do whatever I can to help that be accomplished.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follower her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
