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Hands-On Healing
Many are calling these healings, miracles. It's a phenomenon that's even impressing Cleveland doctors.
As Ted Henry reported, this word-of-mouth Catholic ministry has somehow managed to escape broad public attention, until now.
Faith healers meet in churches all over Greater Cleveland, and on a recent Sunday morning the faith healing team was at St. Ignatius High School where there was standing room only.
SLIDESHOW: Faith Healers
SCHEDULE: Healing ServicesThe hands-on healing service frequently runs nine hours. Even though it was not advertised, the service attracted 700 people. Often, there's more than 1,000 people attending.
Henry said what makes the services so remarkable is that many who come, people often near death, leave reporting that they've been healed.
And numbered among those who claim to have experienced partial or complete healings are a number of doctors, including one of the most famous doctors in Cleveland's history, Dr. Ted Castele, who visited the healers last summer.
"I was kind of afraid of what might happen. And I stood there, and then I felt this strange sensation. I don't know what it was, I can't describe it," said Castele.
Castele was NewsChannel5's medical reporter for 25 years. Last year, he suffered from great physical pain that his own doctors couldn't relieve, until he visited a Cleveland faith healing team.
And then there's oral surgeon Michael Hudec who has seen with his own eyes physical healings initiated by faith.
"It's witnessed. I mean this is just not something that is a fluke. These are witnessed miracles that have happened, that I've seen personally, over the last 11 years of my life, and I consider myself to be one of those miracles," Hudec said.
The core of the healing team includes a priest, a nun and a lay couple, and what they did for Jill Mierau was astonishing, Henry reported. With fourth stage cancer of the breasts, bones and lungs, Mierau was given only two months to live.
"My doctor finally said 'you (are) too sick, and there is nothing else I can offer you,'" Mierau said.
Today, she's off oxygen, she's back to living a full life. After seeing the faith healers, Mierau made a remarkable recovery. And one of the healers, Dr. Issam Nemeh, offered her hope with just one sentence.
"I saw Dr. Nemeh and he said, 'I know you're going to be healed,'" Mierau said.
Word of mouth about the healings is drawing people to Cleveland from everywhere. Not everyone is healed, but many say they are and they're quick to call what happens here miracles, Henry reported.
"This isn't a science. This is faith. And there are miracles," Hudec said.
You can e-mail Ted with your reaction or suggestions to henry@newsnet5.com.
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