Pastor Michael Guglielmucci admits his cancer was a hoax; Videos being removed from YouTube
Christian Pastor for the Planetshakers youth movement in Australia Michael Guglielmucci has admitted that his cancer is a hoax. Wikinews has also learned that one of the churches he preached at has had videos showing his claims of cancer removed from YouTube, claiming copyright infringement. He has also admitted to being addicted to pornography for over 16 years.
For at least two years, Gugliemucci claimed to have leukaemia. Reports say that he received an unknown amount of money through donations for his treatments and even released an compact disc album single titled ‘Healer’.
YouTube began removing the videos after the Hillsong Church in Sydney, one of the churches Gugliemucci preached at, began to claim they were in violation of copyright laws. Those videos reportedly had shown Gugliemucci speaking about his cancer and also included a video from his hit single album Healer. Some videos even showed him wearing an oxygen mask while he was performing his sermon. According to reports, several attempts to re-upload his videos to YouTube was quickly met with the site removing the videos under claims that they violate copyright laws.
Wikinews has contacted the church, its publishing company, and YouTube for a statement regarding the removal of the videos, but has yet to receive a response.
After the announcement of Gugliemucci’s hoax, his father Danny released a statement saying that his son will undergo professional treatment for his “sins.”
“Michael is struggling with a different kind of illness and is receiving professional help and will do so as long as is needed. On the council and advice of our executive and board, after our up and coming Edge conference, we will take time to be with Mike and get him all the professional and spiritual help he needs to come to full recovery,” said Danny Gugliemucci in a statement to the press.
“In September in 2006, Mike had an accident and went to hospital. It was at this time, because of his torment of living a double life, Mike thought he could escape the pain by creating a diversion from his addiction to adult pornography, so he created the cancer scenario,” added Danny.
Backgrounder
Michael Guglielmucci is a former pastor and songwriter with some of Australia’s biggest youth churches, beginning with Planetshakers City Church in Melbourne then followed by a brief stint at Hillsong Church in Sydney. Guglielmucci has recently admitted that his claims about having an aggressive form of cancer, supposedly diagnosed in 2006 were untrue. He is no longer serving in active ministry, and is now seeking professional help.
Guglielmucci was raised in Adelaide, where his parents established the Southside Christian Centre at O’Halloran Hill (now Edge Church International, an Australian Christian Churches church at Reynella). Growing up in the Australian Assemblies of God, Guglielmucci became involved in leadership in the Planetshakers’ youth ministry. He was the bass player in the Planetshakers’ band and a leading figure in the movement. In 1999 Mike moved to Perth, to be Youth Pastor at Lakes Christian Life Centre. In late 2003, Michael moved to Melbourne along with his wife, to be Youth Pastor at Planetshakers in Melbourne. Over the course of the youth ministry’s history, Guglielmucci has composed numerous songs which have featured in the various albums released.
In October 2006, Guglielmucci revealed how he had gone to the hospital for a series of tests which revealed that he had “quite an aggressive form of cancer”. He said that it was this diagnosis and moment that inspired his song Healer:
“I just went home. I knew I had to go home and needed to get alone with God,” he says in the video. I walked into my studio at home and for some reason. . . I sat at a piano and began to worship. I sang that song from start to finish. I was crying. I just realized that God had given me an incredible gift and I realise that song was going to be my strength.”
It has been revealed that Guglielmucci suffers from a pornography addiction and that he’d “been living a double life” carrying a tremendous amount of guilt.
The Australian Christian Churches instructed Guglielmucci to go to police, who will investigate what has happened to money raised during his cancer deception.
People close to Guglielmucci have revealed that he’d hung around in doctors’ waiting rooms as part of a web of lies to convince followers that he was dying of cancer. “He never even saw a doctor. He went to hospitals and clinics but hung around the waiting rooms.”
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
GNU Free Documentation License
| More from NewsWax
Stumble It!
