"We are never alone"; as we remember 9-11-2026

 

The"Cross at Ground Zero", a steel beam in the shape of a cross from the World Trade Center site that is part of the permanent exhibition of the 9/11 Museum Memorial  (ANSA)

Church

• United States
• Pope John Paul II
• Pope Benedict XVI
• anniversary
• interview
• terrorism

Remembering 9/11, 25 years later: 'We are never alone'

Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York recalls the faith that helped people through that day, highlights the memorials to mark the anniversary, and stresses that even in “our tragedies…we are never alone.”

By Kielce Gussie

“Everyone I've talked to remembers exactly where they were 25 years ago,” says Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York, referring to the anniversary marking a quarter of a century since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

FILE PHOTO: Workmen beginning the task of dismantling the destroyed remains of the 7 World Trade Center building in New York, USA on 17 September 2001 (ANSA)

Whether you were working, in school, or not yet born, the events of that day changed aspects of the world.

For Archbishop Hicks, September 11, 2001, started in the classroom during his graduate studies as a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Illinois. He remembers how the entire class sat in disbelief after learning the news.

It was an event that affected not only the places where the planes crashed—New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania—but the thousands of people whose lives would never be the same.

Faith in the midst of terror

On a day filled with terror, sadness, and shock, faith, too, was found amid the rubble.

Not only did people find faith on 9/11, but Archbishop Hicks highlights how it became something to rely on. “At the core, when everything is falling apart, people go right back to God, to faith, to hope, to those core things that hold us together as a people,” he explains.

More than 2,900 people were killed on that day alone. Out of the thousands of first responders who charged into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania, hundreds died selflessly trying to save others.

Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain for the New York Fire Department, was one example of these core values in action. “I think what you saw in Father Judge is what happened to so many people,” Archbishop Hicks underlines. “When there's a need, you jump in, and you don't hesitate, and you help…he lost his life, but that is sacrificial love.”

Father Judge became the first certified fatality of the attacks. His name is among the other 2,976 persons forever immortalized in the memorial—made from the steel of the twin towers—in New York.

A community unites

In the city where the two World Trade Center towers once stood, acts of remembrance, services, Masses, and memorials will commemorate the anniversary—from walks of remembrance and wreath-laying ceremonies to dedications and light tributes.

Family members of victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center place flowers in one of two pools in the shapes of the footprints left by the two World Trade Center towers at Ground Zero  (ANSA)

But exactly at 8:46 am—the moment 25 years ago when the first plane hit the North Tower—all the church bells in the city will ring as New York goes quiet.

It will be a moment “to stop, to listen, to pray, to not forget, and to do so as a community together with God,” Archbishop Hicks explains.

The archdiocese also held a vigil Mass on the evening of September 10 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the heart of New York City. In the packed church were family members of victims of 9/11, representatives of the New York Police and Fire departments, Port Authority, emergency service workers, civic leaders, humanitarian organizations, priests, and lay people.

The Tribute in Light installation is illuminated over the lower Manhattan skyline ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, in New York

Archbishop Hicks describes the support this unity brings, especially to those who are still grieving 25 years on. “It takes a long time with something of this magnitude. So, coming together in faith and at the Mass, that helps.”

Peace is fragile

Remembering the events of September 11, 2001, also reminds us that peace is fragile. It can only be accomplished if people join together to work for it, overcoming disagreements and challenges. 

Read also

08/09/2026

9/11: 'A Day to Give Back'

The attacks ushered in a period of tension. They fractured a sense of fraternity and shed doubts on the sense of stability and peace so painstakingly built after the end of the Cold War.  

Just eight weeks after the attacks, St. Pope John Paul II highlighted dialogue as “essential for overcoming tragic conflicts inherited from the past, and for ensuring that ‘the name of the one God become increasingly what it is: a name of peace and a summons to peace.’”

Seven years later, standing at the site of the World Trade Center, Pope Benedict XVI prayed for peace in our violent world. “Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign…”

In 2015, Pope Francis marveled at how such love was shown on that tragic day, remarking on how “here, amid pain and grief, we also have a palpable sense of the heroic goodness which people are capable of, those hidden reserves of strength from which we can draw. In the depths of pain and suffering, you also witnessed the heights of generosity and service. Hands reached out, lives were given.”

The Mass at St. Patrick’s, 25 years after the attacks, was an example of the dialogue and fraternity the pontiffs called for to achieve peace in the world but also in our countries, cities, and families. Catholics, rabbis, imams, Protestant ministers, interreligious and ecumenical groups were all present in the Cathedral, praying and hoping together.

FILE PHOTO: St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, New York (2020 Getty Images)

“[Dialogue] begins with us. We might disagree on a number of issues. It could be about theology, ecclesiology, [or] politics. But we have to take the first step to at least stand together, and to really follow the example of peace,” the archbishop of New York points out.

His entire homily at St. Patrick's centered on the fact that healing and grieving take time. They cannot be swept away. They cannot be ignored. But hope, the archbishop says, is eternal.

“God is with us in the good, in the bad. He is with us in our tragedies, in our joys. We are never abandoned. We are never alone. God was with us 25 years ago. God has been with us during these 25 years. God is with us today. God will continue to be with us tomorrow.”

“We are never abandoned. We are never alone. God was with us 25 years ago. God has been with us during these 25 years. God is with us today. God will continue to be with us tomorrow.”

A habit and other relics of Padre Pio are coming to America

 

Padre Pio’s habit, rare relics coming to US — along with his fellow Capuchins

written by Gina Christian

St. Pio of Pietrelcina, known as Padre Pio, is seen in this undated photo that was part of a Vatican-hosted presentation of 10 new photos of the Capuchin saint on April 29, 2024. (CNS photo/Courtesy Saint Pio Foundation)

(OSV News) — A habit worn by St. Pio of Pietrelcina and other rare relics are coming to the U.S., brought by Capuchin friars from the very monastery that was home to the beloved saint known as Padre Pio.

The National Center for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, and the Padre Pio Foundation of America in Cromwell, Connecticut, announced the visit in a May 19 joint press release.

Capuchin Father Francesco Dileo, provincial minister of the Capuchin Friars Minor of San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy — the monastery at which the saint served — will lead the relics tour, which will take place Oct. 11-14 at the Barto center and Oct. 15-18 at St. Pius X Church in Middletown, Connecticut.

Full-Size Habit Worn by Saint

The friars will bring with them a full-size habit worn by the saint, one that has previously never left Italy, along with a second relic.

Padre Pio’s habit is “far more than a simple garment,” and is rather “a sacred symbol of his vocation, humility, and total devotion to Christ,” said Christina Calandra Rocus, whose late mother, Vera Calandra, founded the National Center for Padre Pio after a profound encounter with the saint during his earthly life.

With her husband’s encouragement, Calandra traveled to visit Padre Pio two years after the birth of their fifth child, Vera Marie, who suffered from congenital and life-threatening defects to her urinary tract. During two audiences, the priest blessed Vera and her daughter, as well as Christina and her brother Michael, who had accompanied their mother. Upon their return to the U.S., doctors discovered a bladder growing in place of the one they had removed from Vera Marie, and her health steadily improved. The family founded the center in 1971 in gratitude for Padre Pio’s intercession.

‘Deep Spiritual Reflection and Prayer’

Vera Marie Calandra, now the center’s vice president, said the “unprecedented visit” of the “rare and intimate relic” marked “an occasion of deep spiritual reflection and prayer” — both of which were hallmarks of Padre Pio’s life.

Born Francesco Forgione in 1887 in Pietrelcina, Italy, the future saint entered the Capuchin order at age 15 and was ordained in 1910. Between 1915 and 1918, he served intermittently in the Italian Army’s medical corps during World War I but was ultimately discharged due to poor health. He returned to his monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, and in 1918 received the stigmata (the wounds of Christ), the first priest to receive such marks in the history of the Catholic Church.

Physical and Spiritual Suffering

Amid sustained physical and spiritual suffering — compounded by austerity and long hours of prayer — he established Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, now a renowned national research hospital located in San Giovanni Rotondo. The Capuchin also devoted himself to the healing of souls, often spending more than 15 hours a day hearing confessions. Padre Pio died in 1968 and was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, with whom he had been friends since 1947.

A detailed schedule of the relics tour is available on the websites of both of the centers, which are the only two organizations in North American officially recognized by the Capuchins of Our Lady of Grace Friary.

Julie Fitts Ritter, executive director of the Padre Pio Foundation of America, said the visit of the friars and the relics tour — which she described as a “tremendous privilege” — promise “to deepen the devotion of all who love Padre Pio and carry on his legacy of faith, healing, and compassion.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

Two American women get USCCB approval for promoting cause for Sainthood

 

Sainthood causes for Benedictine sister

and disabilities education advocate get 

US bishops’ approval

Gertrude Agnes Barber is pictured with children in an undated photo in Erie, Pa. Barber founded the Barber National Institute for adults and children with intellectual disabilities and behavioral health challenges. Her cause for canonization was presented during the Fall Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops held Nov. 11-14, 2024. (OSV News photo/CNS file, courtesy Barber National Institute)

Sister Annella Zervas, a professed religious of the Order of St. Benedict, is pictured in this undated photo. Her cause for canonization was presented to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12, 2024. (OSV News photo/courtesy of The Sister Annella Zervas, OSB, Guild)

(OSV News) — In 1918, when Benedictines in Minnesota gave Anna Cordelia Zervas her religious name, Sister Mary Annella, her mother reacted with surprise.

“But there is no St. Annella,” she is reported to have said. Her daughter replied: “Then I shall have to be the first one!”

Sister Annella’s response may prove truer than she could have possibly known, as a cause for her canonization was presented to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12. A separate cause for Gertrude Agnes Barber, a Pennsylvania educator committed to serving children and adults with learning disabilities, was also brought forward for the bishops’ consultation.

During their fall plenary assembly in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops voted 206 to 7, with 11 abstentions, to support the local advancement of Sister Annella’s cause, and 2015 to 6, with 19 abstentions, to support the same for Barber’s cause.

Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, Sister Annella’s home diocese, introduced Sister Annella’s cause, while Bishop Edward M. Lohse of Kalamazoo, Michigan, introduced Barber’s cause on behalf of Bishop Lawrence T. Persico of Erie, Pennsylvania.

The two women died 74 years apart — Sister Annella in 1926 after suffering horribly from a rare skin condition, and Barber in 2000, after becoming a national leader and advocate in her field. Postulators for both causes are currently gathering information locally about the two women with plans to prepare a “positio” for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican.

In the Diocese of Crookston, where Sister Annella’s cause for canonization is being investigated, sources are primarily historical, whereas for Barber’s cause in the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania, people who knew her in life are contributing their memories.

Sister Annella was born in 1900 in Moorhead, Minnesota, a growing town along the North Dakota border. She was a devout child, and, according to a biography, “demonstrated a spiritual maturity that set her apart from her peers.” In 1915, a teenaged Zervas gained her pastor’s approval and encouragement to enter the Benedictine convent in St. Joseph, Minnesota. She entered as a postulant that year, and four years later she professed her first vows. After her final vows in 1922, she was assigned to teach music and serve as an organist in Bismarck, North Dakota.

A short time later, itchy and swelling skin and hair loss — to the point where her visiting parents did not recognize her — led her to seek medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The disease progressed, and her parents brought her home to Moorhead in the fall of 1924.

“Despite her severe physical suffering, which included violent chills, high temperatures, and painful attacks of itching, scratching, and weeping, her mental faculties always remained intact,” according to a biography. “The pus-like discharge from the skin disease had a sharp, biting, and decayed odor. Her frail body exfoliated between a pint and a quart a day of skin. At one point, she existed on almost no food.”

Despite her suffering, Sister Annella remained cheerful, and amid fits of pain, she prayed. “Yes, Lord, send me more pain, but give me strength to bear it,” she reportedly said. She only asked for God’s will to be done. She died on the vigil of the Assumption, Aug. 14, 1926. After a funeral Mass in Moorhead, her remains were buried 160 miles southeast at St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph.

Shortly after her death, reports of cures attributed to Sister Annella’s intercession began to circulate, and local devotion to her persisted for decades. However, it took one man’s mysterious encounter and dogged determination to revive contemporary interest in the holy woman.

Patrick Norton, a devout Catholic and paint contractor in central Minnesota, was working on a replica of the Lourdes’ grotto in the cemetery of St. Joseph’s Monastery on Oct. 7, 2010 — the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary — when he said a sister in full habit approached and began a conversation. After talking a short time, she said goodbye and “disappeared,” he recalled. She never told him his name, but he was struck by her large blue eyes. He later recognized the sister as Sister Annella, and he made it his mission to spread her story.

Sister Annella’s suffering “reminds me of the passion of our Lord,” said Norton, 62, who was cared for as an orphaned infant by Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity in then-Bombay, India, before being adopted as a teen into a Connecticut family. After trying to gain traction for Sister Annella’s cause for years, he believes “God opened every door” to make it possible to move forward at this time.

In October 2023, Bishop Cozzens announced to a group of Catholics devoted to the nun that he was beginning an inquiry into her life that could lead to a cause for Sister Annella’s canonization. The effort is led by canon lawyers Amanda Zurface, the cause’s postulator, and Msgr. David Baumgartner, president of the newly formed Sister Annella Guild. The guild is charged with advancing Sister Annella’s cause.

More consultation is needed before Bishop Cozzens officially opens a cause, Zurface told OSV News. However, Sister Annella’s “life was a testament to heroic virtue, and it offers us a profound witness of how suffering can be transformed into an offering of love for Christ and his church,” Msgr. Baumgartner said.

Speaking to the bishops Nov. 12, Bishop Cozzens called Sister Annella an “apostle of suffering for our day.”

“Many people have expressed that her witness to the value of suffering has helped them embrace their own suffering with faith in God’s goodness,” he said. “Sister Annella is a true teacher of our Catholic faith, witnessing that each person, regardless of their struggle, has great dignity and is created for intimacy with God. And she teaches us that God is our truest friend, and our vocations are good even when they take a different path than we might expect.”

While those who knew Sister Annella in life have since died, memories of Gertrude Barber are still fresh for those with whom she worked and cared. Born 11 years after Sister Annella in Erie, Pennsylvania, Barber grew up in a large Catholic family, attended Penn State University and began a teaching career in the Erie School District in 1931. She eventually became a school psychologist, where her job included turning students away from the school because of their intellectual disabilities.

“She was deeply affected as she saw parents face the agony of either keeping their children at home without access to an education or sending them away to a distant institution where they would be segregated from the world,” states a short biography circulated by leaders of her canonization cause. “Dr. Barber was determined to find another way.”

Her deep faith and view of all as children of God led Barber to begin a decades-long crusade to educate children with special needs. In 1952, she opened a classroom in Erie for students with intellectual disabilities, which expanded to meet the needs of other students with special needs as well as adults. She founded the Dr. Gertrude A. Barber Center, which included services for people with intellectual disabilities at every life stage, and her work received significant educational, civic and religious recognition. In 1990, at age 78, she traveled to Washington to witness the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Barber’s cause officially opened in 2019, and she is now titled a “servant of God.” “So many people have been inspired by her, and that’s what’s motivated all of this — you look at the life of somebody like Gertrude, who followed Christ so closely in her mission,” Msgr. Tom McSweeney, a priest of the Diocese of Erie and the cause’s postulator, told OSV News.

As the executive vice president of what is now named the Barber National Institute, Maureen Barber-Carey carries on her aunt’s legacy. She recalls Barber’s work as driven by her deep faith. She noted that Barber once gave her one of her jackets, and pinned to the inside of the sleeve was a prayer.

“She truly believed she was a servant of God, and she was doing God’s work on earth,” Barber-Carey said. “It was to have persons with disabilities acknowledged — that they were children of God, just as a person without a disability is, and as a child of God, they deserve every right to have every opportunity to be the best they can possibly be.”

Erie Mayor Joe Schember warmly recalls Barber’s work with his daughter, Jodi, who is now 39. “She did seem holy to me,” Schember, a Catholic, said of Barber. “She was a very open person, a very friendly person.”

Speaking to his fellow bishops Nov. 12, Bishop Lohse said that Barber’s “life and witness call us to remember and honor the presence of Christ, even in the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters, and to see reflected in them the beauty of a loving Creator.”

After the “positio” for each woman is sent to Rome, it is to be reviewed and sent to the pope for a decree of heroic virtues. If the pope grants that decree, the person is given the title “venerable.”

In general, for a cause to proceed to beatification, a confirmed miracle must be attributed to the venerable’s intercession. A second miracle must be confirmed before a person is canonized.

“Especially in this time, people are longing for God,” said Norton, Sister Annella’s longtime promoter. “These saints can bring souls to God. Not just one, not just two, but thousands and millions.”

Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.

When parishioners ban together to buy their parish church

 

‘It’s a minor miracle’: Parishioners purchase historic church from Pennsylvania diocese 

By Daniel Payne

CNA Staff, Mar 23, 2024 / 06:00 am

A group of parishioners in the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, is celebrating this month after acquiring a historic church from the diocese and preserving it as a chapel and place of worship.

The Society of St. Joseph of Bethlehem (SSJB) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, announced earlier this month that the society had purchased St. Joseph’s Church, which opened more than a century ago, from the Allentown Diocese.

“The desire to preserve the church by former parishioners has been steadfast since the church was closed in 2008,” the society’s board said in a letter announcing the purchase. “It has taken time and energy over the years to enter into an agreement with the Diocese of Allentown.”

On its Facebook page, the SSJB says its mission is “to restore and preserve St. Joseph’s Church as a sacred place of worship and a testament to the history and cultural heritage” of the area.

Lina Tavarez, a spokeswoman for the diocese, said the parish ”was closed in 2008 because of a merger of several local parishes.”

“It hosted only one regular Mass per year — on the feast day of St. Joseph — and was available for funerals for former parishioners,” she said.

Paula Kydoniefs, the president of the board of directors of SSJB, told CNA that the group was established “solely for the purpose of buying this church, taking care of it, and sponsoring events.” The church, historically attended by the local Slovenian/Windish community, had its cornerstone laid in 1914 and fully opened in 1917.

Kydoniefs explained that the decision to purchase the property originated several years ago, during a period when the diocese was in the process of merging local parishes.

“In 2008 they were consolidating, and this was one of five churches that was being closed as a parish,” she said. “St. Joseph’s parishioners fought that and appealed it and ended up taking it to the Vatican.”

The Vatican eventually ordered that the parish remain open for use, Kydoniefs said. In 2011 then-Bishop John Barres “gave the parish the ability to have an annual Mass and have funerals of former parishioners.”

The church was used “only occasionally” in this capacity, Tavarez told CNA. In 2023 the diocese moved again to sell the church.

“We went back to the diocese,” Kydoniefs said. “It’s a minor miracle. It was last-minute.”

“They had already announced they were going to sell it. They could have just told us no,” she said. “But, credit to them, they said: ‘If you can come up with $175,000 quickly, you can purchase it.’”

Kydoniefs said “several minor miracles and maybe major miracles” followed, with a benefactor — the James Stocklas Family Trust — quickly coming forward to donate “the whole $175,000.”

“Financially we’re independent, and we’re totally responsible for the care and upkeep and maintenance of the church,” Kyondiefs said.

“According to canon law, it’s a chapel,” she said. “It’s still a Catholic church, it’s still affiliated with the diocese in that way. The diocese has the jurisdiction over what public worship services we can do there.” 

“They’ve told us that we must have two Masses a year, one on the feast day of St. Joseph [March 19] and one on Oct. 28, the anniversary of the consecration of the church,” she added. 

Presently the church is not suited for occupancy, Kydoniefs said, with inspectors finding several code deficiencies in need of updating. Regulators did work with the community to develop a stopgap mitigation plan that allowed the church to celebrate St. Joseph’s feast day on March 19. 

The church “does need a lot of work,” she admitted, but she said the SSJB is prepared to see the building restored and utilized for regular community and religious events “at least monthly.” 

“We’ve got a lot of ideas,” she said. “We really want to see this church being used again.” 

In a letter issued upon the church’s reopening, meanwhile, the SSJB wrote that “as heartbreaking as it was a year ago, to hear that our cherished St. Joseph’s Church was to be permanently closed and sold on the open market, we now experience the opposite — hearts filled with joy and thanksgiving!”

“To the St. Joseph’s Church community,” the letter said, “welcome home!”

A new Bishop for Harrisburg PA

Most Reverend Timothy Senior, V.G., M.B.A., M.S.W, M.A., M.DIV

Bishop Timothy Senior was appointed Bishop of Harrisburg by his Holiness Pope Francis on April 25, 2023. He will be installed the Bishop of Harrisburg on June 21, 2023

 Bishop-designate Timothy Senior was ordained an Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia in July, 2009. He is currently Regional Bishop of Montgomery County and Philadelphia-South, as well as Chancellor of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary.

Prior to assuming these responsibilities, Bishop-designate Senior served as Rector of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary from 2012 to 2022, after having been the Moderator of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 2009 to 2012. He served as Vicar for Clergy from 2004 to 2009. From 1992 to 2004, Bishop-designate Senior served in the Archdiocesan Secretariat for Catholic Human Services, both as Deputy Secretary and then Secretary.

A 1977 graduate of Lansdale Catholic High School, Lansdale, Pa., Bishop-designate Senior is a classically trained pianist and the youngest of the three children of the late James H. and Elise Rothwell Senior. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1985. He earned a Masters of Divinity and Master of Arts in Theology from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, served as an assistant pastor at a parish in Bucks County and taught religion in an Archdiocesan high school. He was then assigned to graduate studies at Boston College, earning his Masters in Social Work and Masters in Business Administration in 1992.

In 1998, he was named Honorary Chaplain to His Holiness, and in 2005, he was named a Prelate of Honor. In 2009, Bishop-designate Senior was appointed Titular Bishop of Floriana and Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia, and was ordained a Bishop on July 31, 2009 by Cardinal Justin Rigali.

FBI raids home and arrests a well-known Philadelphia area Pro-Life leader

 

FBI arrest of Pennsylvania pro-life leader called ‘horrendous stunt’

Catholic News Service September 26, 2022

Mark Houck, co-founder and president of the King's Men, a Catholic lay apostolate, is seen in this 2014 video. The Kintnersville, Pa., resident was arrested Sept. 23, 2022, on federal charges for allegedly physically assaulting a volunteer escort at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Philadelphia in October 2021. (CNS screen grab/TheKingsMen.org)

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — The head of the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia said the FBI’s arrest of a prominent Catholic pro-life activist known for his sidewalk counseling outside a Philadelphia abortion facility is “a horrendous stunt to intimidate pro-lifers.”

Mark Houck, 48, was arrested at his home in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the morning of Sept. 23 for allegedly assaulting an abortion clinic volunteer a year ago in violation of the federal FACE Act.

The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act prohibits intentional property damage and the use of “force or threat of force or … physical obstruction” to “injure, intimidate or interfere with” someone entering an abortion clinic.

“There never was any blocking of access to an abortion center, and instead it was a moment of defense for the sake of his 12-year-old son,” Tom Stevens, president and CEO of the Pro-Life Union, said in a statement Sept. 26. “This has been a consistent experience down at Planned Parenthood, where Mark and his family have been hassled.”

Sidewalk counseling by the Houcks and other pro-life advocates is aimed at helping women choose alternatives to abortion.

Steve Ertelt of LifeNews.com, a pro-life news website, and other news outlets reported that Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie, said her husband was doing sidewalk counseling outside the Planned Parenthood-Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center Oct. 13, 2021, when a volunteer “patient escort” leading women into the building to have abortions threatened the couple’s son and yelled obscenities at him.

Ryan-Marie Houck said her husband pushed the man away from his son to protect the child after the man entered “the son’s personal space” and refused to stop hurling “crude … inappropriate and disgusting” comments at the Houcks.

The clinic volunteer, Bruce Love, filed a civil suit against Houck last year, but according to various reports, the suit was dismissed because Love himself never showed up.

According to court documents, Houck allegedly twice assaulted “B.L.,” as he is identified in the indictment, outside the center in two separate incidents on the same day.

“In the first incident, B.L. was attempting to escort two patients exiting the clinic, when the defendant forcefully shoved B.L. to the ground,” the indictment said. “In the second incident, the defendant verbally confronted B.L. and forcefully shoved B.L. to the ground in front of the Planned Parenthood center, causing injuries to B.L. that required medical attention.”

On the morning of her husband’s arrest, Ryan-Marie Houck said 25 to 30 armed FBI agents, who she said included SWAT members, raided the family’s home at 7:05 a.m.

She said they entered the home, pointed rifles at her and her husband as the couple’s seven children began screaming, and then arrested her husband, who is co-founder and president of the King’s Men, an international laymen’s apostolate.

“It was all just very scary and traumatic,” she told the National Review.

A spokesperson with the FBI’s Philadelphia office told Fox News Digital that claims about SWAT team members being involved in the arrest were inaccurate. “FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck’s front door, identified themselves as FBI agents and asked him to exit the residence. He did so and was taken into custody without incident pursuant to an indictment.”

Houck made his initial appearance in federal court in Philadelphia on the indictment later the same day.

If convicted of the offenses, Houck faces up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000.

During a Dec. 1, 2021, prayer vigil in front of the same Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia, amid routine heckling and intimidation, Houck and other pro-life advocates stressed the need for prayer, fasting and a willingness to rejoice amid the inevitable rejection their pro-life advocacy incurs.

“I’ve been spit on, I’ve been cursed at, I’ve been mocked, I’ve been pushed, I’ve been shoved, I’ve been knocked over,” Houck told CatholicPhilly.com, the online news outlet of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “I give thanks for it, for the ability to suffer in a small way (for Christ).”

During the vigil, Planned Parenthood stationed an armed security guard outside the facility to take names and make notes on participants, who included moms, babies and senior citizens.