The Gift of Knowledge Backfires

Robert Steiner, a Californian who has pursued Amazing Grace for some time now, made it quite plain that her Gift of Knowledge is the result of clever guesswork and “cold reading” techniques whereby she appears to be telling the afflicted things that have been divinely revealed to her. A man she had just called out of the audience and “healed” in front of Steiner on a San Francisco TV show asked her how she knew about his ailments. She explained it all for him:How did I know? Well, see, it’s called the Word of Knowledge. It’s a small inner voice of the Lord, for anyone else that would like to know. ... It’s called the Holy Spirit.... He speaks to me in a small inner voice ... and He’ll even show me who that person is.

Really? Well, Steiner at that point asked Grace if God—or the Holy Spirit—ever makes mistakes. Answered Amazing: “Never!” That was proof enough that God had had no communication with DiBiccari. Steiner then revealed that the man she had just called out of the audience was none other than the ubiquitous Don Henvick, chosen once more by another faith-healer and “healed” of yet another nonexistent disease. Despite the floundering post-mortem that Grace then launched into to explain away this faux pas, it was obvious that she had been trapped in her own game. To avoid the discussion, she merely turned away from Steiner and Henvick and declared, “Listen, I don’t want to get on this anymore!” Just say goodnight, Gracie.

13

Father DiOrio: Vatican-Approved Wizard

Until recently, the Catholic church had kept claims about the healing sanctuary of Lourdes separate from claims made by the faith-healers. Specifically mentioning healer Oral Roberts, the National Catholic Welfare Conference declared that thoughmedical evidence from doctors is frequently included in the testimony of the cured, [in Roberts’s reports, there was] no effort on the part of the Roberts staff to gather extensive medical and psychiatric evidence.

The conference pointed out that the church had been very careful to establish “rigid tests of acceptance as miracles” for the cases reported from Lourdes. I found that at least one modern Catholic healer also makes such a claim, and I made every attempt to examine it. There are a number of Roman Catholic healers who operate within the church and with cautious Vatican approval. This group includes Fathers Ralph DiOrio, Dennis Kelleher, and Edward McDonough, along with Francis MacNutt (a former priest from Florida), and Barbara Shlemon. Father McDonough divides healings into three categories. They are physical, emotional, and spiritual, with the last being “the greatest.” He says: The greatest healing is a happy death. Then we are completely restored. Every other healing is temporary. What we try to teach people about miracles is that they are signs of God’s love, goodness, and mercy.... Many times, people intellectualize healing. They try to make it too complicated.

Feeling that I might complicate Father McDonough’s life too much by asking simple questions about healing, and seeing from his published comments that this faith-healer would not be likely to enlighten me further, I decided to examine only the superstar of all the Catholic healers. Charismatic Catholic Father Ralph DiOrio, of Worcester, Massachusetts, is by far the best-known of them all, largely because of an article in the National Enquirer in 1977 and subsequent coverage on NBC-TV news. At age 14, he says, he was dedicated to the priesthood. He joined a Chicago seminary through the Missionary Fathers of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and was ordained in 1957. Healing abilities apparently came early to him. He says:... At the beginning of my priesthood, everyone I anointed with holy oil, every lay person was healed.... God has been preparing me all my life for this work.

DiOrio made his commitment to the healing movement on the very day that healer Kathryn Kuhlman died, and he made his first attempt to heal on the anniversary of her birth, apparently believing that he had inherited her position. He certainly had studied her techniques and even today uses her “shotgun” method of healing. An example:There is a healing taking place now in someone’s leg. I’m not sure if it is arthritis. If someone feels a healing taking place in their leg, if they feel less pain, tell us.

Consider the possibilities in these three sentences. Among 1,000 or so devotees, any leg problem will qualify. If it is arthritis, so much better the “hit.” If not, DiOrio has already declared that he is “not sure” about that angle, so he’s covered. Notice he says that “if” anyone feels they are being healed they should respond. “If” anyone feels “less pain,” he wants to know about it. Should there be no response, he can just go on to something else that will elicit an answer. Nothing is lost. Also note that he is first fishing for a “healing,” then drops the caliber of the miracle to just feeling “less pain” or a diminution of symptoms. This is classic “shotgun” technique, as is the “14 people have just been healed of scoliosis” ploy. Father DiOrio also does the leg-stretching stunt. As W. V. Grant does, DiOrio sits his subject in a chair, prays over the “short” leg, and it appears to grow longer. It’s the same routine, but he wears a cassock. DiOrio also features “slaying in the spirit,” a part of his (and Kuhlman’s) ritual in which the afflicted person falls over suddenly when the healer gestures. This is an expected reaction, learned and accepted by regular customers. Father DiOrio claims he has healed every conceivable kind of emotional, physical, and spiritual defect in his time. However, consider the testimony of one healed devotee of Father Ralph, “healed” during his Detroit appearance at the Joe Louis Arena. This was published in 1986 in the pages of Fate magazine, not a periodical apt to doubt many miracles:I suffered a neck injury ... a long time ago ... and I have had breathing problems and pain.... I attended Father DiOrio’s charismatic service.... I was sitting high in the third balcony.... I heard [him] call my name, saying, “There’s a Helen here with a cervical problem, a neck problem—I feel it happening—a healing is taking place.” Out of all those thousands of people, I was not certain he meant me, because nowhere was my name or ailment given. But he did mean me.... [Now] I do not have pain.

True, this woman’s name is Helen. But how difficult was it for Father DiOrio to hit on a Helen with a neck pain in the Joe Louis Arena, jammed with thousands of believers? It is probable we could find such a combination. And if not, are all the non-Helens ever going to know it? Of course not. This woman never indicated at the meeting that she was the one healed, and had there been no one there to match that description, the result would have been the same. A faith-healer can never be wrong with such a maneuver. And was there perhaps another, very different problem that someone, anyone, might also answer to, given that description? “Cervical” can refer to problems of the uterus, too, and the alternative problem would have applied to Helen, had she been so afflicted. This fitted-evidence tendency is typical of many reports of miraculous healings, as we shall see in the in-depth study of the evidence in Chapter 16.