Building a band of brothers: Consider joining ‘The
King’s Men’
By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
Did you know that on any given Sunday, there is an average
of two women for every one man in church?
Were you aware that five out of every 10 church-going men
struggle with pornography? That less than half of all fathers
talk to their children about sex, much less about chastity,
and that a high percentage of American men have never experienced
proper masculine mentorship?
Those statistics indicate there is a crisis among men —
but that’s just the bad news. The good news is that
there are plenty of men out there who are willing to stand
up and fight the rising tide of immorality for the sake
of God, family and country.
“The pro-life fight is a man’s fight,”
said Mark Houck of St. Isidore’s parish in Quakertown.
“We need men to rise up and enter this fight for life.”
Houck has formed a new Catholic men’s group he is
calling the King’s Men, to afford men the opportunity
to grow in their own spiritual and moral formation, and
to put their beliefs into action.
“The King’s Men will have a four-pronged approach
— education, formation, action and healing,”
he said. Our mission statement is, ‘Under Christ the
King’s universal call to serve, we as men pledge to
build and unite other men in the mold of leader, protector,
and provider through education, accountability and action.”
The group will launch officially on Aug. 28, the feast of
its patron, Saint Augustine, on Aug. 28. But it already
has a proven track record. A recent kick-off workshop on
masculine spirituality at the Malvern Retreat House, which
featured the group’s spiritual advisor, Father Phillip
F. Chavez, S.O.L.T., drew almost 100 men from as far away
as Texas and Missouri.
“The response was amazing, especially because it was
all [through] word of mouth,” Houck said. He believes
the paucity of resources for Catholic men is contributing
to their hunger for wisdom and guidance in the area of masculine
spirituality and responsible manhood.
“Whether it’s accountability or formation groups,
we just don’t have much to offer them,” he said.
Houck, 32, began to grapple with that problem several years
ago while working as a chastity educator with Generation
Life in Oreland. “I was looking for some accountability
in my own life — here I was giving chastity education,
but I needed the help of other men to keep me accountable.”
He and several friends began to meet weekly, to help one
another live out the message of John Paul II’s Theology
of the Body. They prayed the rosary, reflected on Scripture
or the teachings of Church, and then had an “accountability
segment,” he said. During that segment, they challenged
each other to make a commitment to grow in holiness on some
level, to confess where they might be failing to live as
they should, and to reaffirm one another with support and
help to overcome their problems.
“We’d check in at the meeting, then call each
other on the phone during the week,” He said. “We
started to see tremendous growth in our chastity battle.
After about three months, we decided to invite other men.
In the last two years, we had over 50 men come to our doors.”
That is how they began a formation and accountability group
known as Real Men, which is now meeting once a week in Oreland
and Center City.
But men need more than just education and formation. Many
also need healing from the many social ills of contemporary
life. Others would like to be more involved in changing
the world around them.
So Houck decided to create the King’s Men, which expands
the model of Real Men with two additional facets —
healing and activism.
Damian Wargo, 32, a religion teacher at Cardinal Dougherty
High School and co-founder of the King’s Men, explained
its four-pronged approach.
“Education is the first piece. We’ll have conferences,
retreats, and workshops for men with experts in the field
of masculine spirituality, masculine character identity,
and what it means to be a real man,” Wargo said.
“But education without formation is pointless. If
you’re learning to be a real man, but not living it
out, it’s somewhat useless knowledge,” he added.
“Formation is actualized through Real Men accountability
groups. The accountability groups are the means to put the
education piece into action.”
The activist arm enables men to fight the culture of death
in the political sphere. Through a financial sponsorship
with the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the
King’s Men will operate as a non-profit 501(c)4 organization,
with the aim of lobbying for a variety of pro-life causes.
“One of our goals is to put an end to pornography
in Pennsylvania,” Wargo said. The group plans to kick-off
a “No More Porn in PA” campaign on Sept. 13
by witnessing in the heart of the porn district at 13th
and Locust.
“One of the things we do is monthly activism in front
of pornography shops and strip clubs, such as Show and Tell
in South Philly,” Wargo said. “We try to spread
the message of truth and love to the men going in and the
women who work there.”
But porn is not the group’s sole issue. On Oct. 14,
it will sponsor “the War Room” at St. John the
Evangelist Parish Center, to develop a plan to battle the
culture of death, by actively opposing porn, abortion or
any of many temptations leading our children astray in today’s
culture.
“This first session will be a brain-storming session,
to pull together men who have talent in a variety of areas,
such as legal or marketing skills …,” Wargo
said. “It’s open to any man who might be interested.”
But not everyone who comes to the Kings Men is ready for
activism, Wargo added. Many Catholic men are, themselves,
caught in the snares of porn and they need healing first.
The fourth facet of the program will be based on the work
of experts in the field of addictions, such as Mark Laaser.
“Dr. Mark Laaser of Faithful and True Ministries has
been 20 years in recovery and has been able to maintain
his sobriety through his spirituality,” Houck said.
“He’s an expert in treating guys caught in sexual
sin. But this is a Protestant program — they don’t
have the sacraments. Which makes me think if we can apply
what Faithful and True Ministries are doing, and tie it
into the sacraments, what a powerful weapon that would be.”
Houck plans to work fulltime on promoting the foundation
of new groups and developing parish resources. “It’s
a laymen’s group, and even though we really need priests
to be there when they can, we need lay leaders in the parishes.”
he said.
Most important, the men need each other, he said: “We
need to be like a band of brothers.”
For more information about the King’s Men, visit www.thekingsmen.us
or call Mark at 267-980-5507 or Damian at 215-906-8878.
Lord,
teach us to pray.
