Fr. John Hollowell was diagnosed with a brain tumor on February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. He had offered himself as an atoning victim for clergy sexual abuse. He went to the shrine in June of 2022.
Newsroom (03/02/2023 09:39, Gaudium Press) Fr. John Hollowell is a priest who serves in the Diocese of Indianapolis, USA. In a testimony posted on YouTube, he claims he was healed through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes. He went to visit Our Lady of Lourdes in her French shrine and was healed of a brain tumor: “I want to make a very quick video, to let everyone know that I was truly healed of my brain tumor,” Fr. Hollowell claims at the beginning of the video.
The priest had been diagnosed with a tumor in 2019. The diagnosis itself was already related to Our Lady, as it was done at the famous Mayo Clinic on February 11, the day the Church commemorates the One who appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto of Massabielle in 1858. In fact, that very night, “I celebrated Mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes” attached to the clinic, claims Fr. Hollowell.
Fr. Hollowell’s account of his healing tells of the beautiful origin of the now world-famous Mayo Clinic, headquartered in Rochester, Minnesota, but with branches in Florida, Arizona, and associations with entities in Iowa and Wisconsin. One day, in a vision, the abbess of some Franciscan sisters saw a hospital, and Jesus told her to go to town and find Dr. Mayo (the founder of the Clinic), to whom she gave the initiative. “In fact, the sisters were the first nurses of the Hospital,” the priest notes.
Everything indicates that the priest’s tumor is related to a request he himself made to Jesus Christ, as he recounts on his Twitter account: “In 2018 I asked, if it was God’s will, to give me a small part of the Cross to carry for the victims of priestly abuse.” Therefore, when the tumor was diagnosed, it was clear to him the reason for his suffering, and he began to carry that cross with resignation: “I accept it willingly,” he said on his Twitter account.
He Decided to Visit the Virgin in France
Before going to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in June 2022, about two and a half months before the trip, an MRI had been performed, which revealed that the tumor “was starting to grow again and the MRI also detected a tumor in the pituitary gland.”
In the face of this new and erroneous diagnosis, the priest says that he maintained his resigned atoning attitude, and that “it was okay if I died,” “because I was willing to make the sacrifice for the victims of the abuses of the Catholic clergy.” He also thought that “if I go to Lourdes and heal there, it might have an impact on some of my family and friends who are estranged from the Catholic Church.”
Now, in this video, Father states, “I went there and got healed, and so I just thank God.” (SCM)
Compiled by Florence MacDonald
