I'm disappointed that there isn't a thread devoted to this already and this isn't the best news item to launch it, but such a thread is way overdue here. Perhaps there will be a more positive news piece that we can post here in the future. I have faith.

Celebrity faith healer accused of abusing hundreds of women arrested in Brazil
By 9News Staff
9:09am Dec 17, 2018



A celebrity faith healer accused of sexually abusing more than 300 women turned himself in to authorities in Brazil's central state of Goias, after spending almost a day as a fugitive.

Joao Teixeira de Faria, who is known as Joao de Deus, had been given until 3pm Saturday (local time) to comply with an arrest warrant, but he did not surrender by the deadline and was deemed a fugitive from justice, officials had said.

He finally surrendered Sunday afternoon on the outskirts of Abadiania, a city in Goias.


In 2012 Oprah Winfrey traveled to visit de Faria to record a special for her talk show, Super Soul Sunday. She told Brazilian media at the time that the experience was overwhelming. "It was so strong that I had to sit down because I felt like I was going to pass out," she told Band TV Goiania. (Supplied)

According to a video released by the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, de Faria said: "I surrender to divine justice and justice on Earth."

De Faria, 76, was to spend the night at the State Delegation of Criminal Investigations in the state capital.

He has been a faith healer for four decades in a small town in central Brazil and became famous for conducting "psychic surgeries" that he said could cure diseases, including cancer.

The spiritual healer, who denies wrongdoing, attracted followers from throughout the world to a retreat in the small town of Abadiania. His treatments, sometimes on video for an outside audience, could involve small incisions, opening nostrils with scissors or scraping an eye without antiseptics.

Visitors included former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, football player Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima and model Naomi Campbell.

The allegations against de Faria first surfaced last week, with several individuals going on a Globo Television show to recount charges that he had been sexually violent with them or relatives. After that, authorities were contacted by more than 300 other accusers, including de Faria's adult daughter, Dalva Teixeira.


Visitors to celebrity faith healer Joao Teixeira de Faria included former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, football player Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima (left) and model Naomi Campbell (right). (AAP)

In an interview published Friday by Brazilian magazine Veja, Teixeira said that under the pretense of mystical treatments he abused and raped his daughter between the ages of 10 and 14.

She said her father stopped after she became pregnant by one of his employees. Teixeira said she was beaten so severely by her father that she suffered a miscarriage.

"My father is a monster," she said.

Representatives for the law office representing de Faria have said that they were not making statements on the case.

De Faria attracted followers from around the world, all looking for spiritual guidance or cures for afflictions.


Spiritual healer Joao Teixeira de Faria, better known as John of God. (AAP)

He gained international exposure in 2012 when Oprah Winfrey visited his retreat to interview him for her talk show.

In a since-deleted column on oprah.com, Winfrey wrote that she was overwhelmed by the experience of seeing him cut into the breast of a woman without anesthesia and that she left feeling "an overwhelming sense of peace."

Many of the de Faria's accusers say they were molested while children. A court dismissed a 2010 suit involving an alleged sexual molestation of a 16-year-old girl by Faria after the defense argued that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the case.

The large number of cases against de Faria stands in stark contrast to a culture of relative impunity when it comes to sex abuse in Latin America's largest nation.

A recent study using Health Ministry data estimated that more than half a million Brazilians are raped every year. Researchers found that only about 10 percent of cases are ever presented to authorities and 70 percent of victims are children.

With AP.