The Australian pentecostal preacher who faked cancer to hide his long-standing addiction to porn will unlikely face legal charges for soliciting donations under the false cause.
According to The Adelaide Advertiser, South Australian police are finalizing investigations without making any charges against Michael Guglielmucci, who admitted his colossal deception on a Australian news channel last month.
Friends of Guglielmucci had set up a now-defunct Facebook site, "Praying Together for Mike Guglielmucci cancer cause," asking for donations.
The police has tracked the money but will stop short of pressing legal action since no one has yet to make formal complaints either to the South Australian police or the police interstate, the Australian paper reported.
Guglielmucci is currently in the hospital receiving psychiatric care for his addiction. His elaborate lie spanned two years, during which he lied to family, friends and even members of Hillsong Church.
Before the scandal erupted, Guglielmucci was known as a former youth pastor at Planetshakers City Church in Melbourne. The church is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. His parents founded Edge Church International, also an Assemblies of God church.
In October 2006, he told his family and congregation that he was suffering an “aggressive” form of terminal blood cancer and multiple secondary cancers.
He claimed that it was the terminal illness that inspired him to write "Healer," which became a hit song earlier this year and is featured on Sydney Hillsong Church's latest album, This is Our God. The album released last month.
At one point, Guglielmucci took his elaborate hoax on stage as he wore an oxygen mask while he performed the song.
Hillsong said it was "obviously shocked" to learn of Guglielmucci's confession and will be taking steps to modify the DVD and CD.
"Because of the visual nature of the DVD, we are removing all footage of Michael and are planning to replace current stock with the re-mastered DVD shortly," said Hillsong in a note on its Web site.
"With regard to the CD, we are working with our distributors and retailers to assess what further action is required."
Brian Houston, pastor at Hillsong Church, also admitted to being "sucked in" to the hoax on his blog earlier this month.
"It was a two year academy award worthy performance as far as I am concerned," he wrote.
But Houston said he never saw a reason to doubt Guglielmucci, who exhibited physical signs of pain during one of Houston's visits to his hotel room.
On his blog, dated Sept. 3, the Hillsong pastor concluded by affirming his faith in Jesus Christ and praying for people who have been hurt by the false story.
Guglielmucci's wife, the first to hear her husband's confession, has told The Advertiser that she would undergo counseling to try to salvage her marriage.
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wbmoore,
Sorry. I am sorry for the young man, but really, one can't gloat about being holly and their higher standards of morality simply b/c they are religious and then do this nonsense in which they judge others. It's entirely hypocritical and all to common.
There is an outreach available that does great work helping believers deal with addiction to porn. I suggest Prodigals International (http://www.prodigalsonline.org/Display.asp) as a source for help. A friend of mine is on the board of directors and the organization does a great work.
to wbmoore
lack of compassion? well that what pastors should be. but all pastors do is always point to sin (JUDGING YOU). and do not tell me i am judging them for the are the 'messengers' of god. why don't they practice what they preach, especially money & contentment
wow agent. the lack of compassion you show is saddening and telling.
You can't make this article up can you? Hilarious.
I don't understand how the wife couldn't know of his faking cancer. What was it he spent all the donations on? Was it just on porn?
I recall a situation years ago. Somehow my email address was skimmed and I started getting spam that I did not want. At the time I was switching to another ISP. I will never forget sending an email out to my friends letting them know that I was switching to another ISP. Normally I would have both of them active for about a month to make sure that my friends had time to switch over.
One day I got an email on my old account that I knew was spam. I planned on just highlighting the entry and do an immediate delete by holding down shift-delete. Right when I highlighted the entry the script immediately opened the email. I saw the most disgusting vile porn. It was past gross. The ugly thing about it was that I could not close the email. It hijacked my computer. I could not do ctrl-alt-del. Nothing. I had to shut off my power strip to shut my computer off. Needless to say when I got my computer back on I immediately shut down that email account.
Who knows how many people get started into Internet porn through something like this. I was not seeking out that trash but it came to me anyway. Someone that is already toying with the idea could easily get enticed like this.
Almost every story I hear about people getting into stuff like this is that they stopped praying. It is easy for any of us to get so busy that we do not have that communion with the Lord on a regular basis. I know that temptation is harder to resist when I do not have consistent time with the Lord. It can happen to anyone. I'm sure it is easier for this to happen with famous people. Hopefully his marriage can be saved and that he seeks the Lord like never before. Mind renewal is not a quick process. The Lord is gracious to help him.
Another reason why everyone in ministry needs major accountability. It is so easy to get sucked into a web of lies, especially when you are in the spotlight and so many people look to you for spiritual guidance. I have to say, though, that this really does speak of serious mental problems. Wearing an oxygen mask...oh man...that's really bad.
bruce, I agree it is unbelievable to me how easy it is for a person to be exposed to porn on the internet whether they are looking for it or not. Sites like youtube are a good example how a person of any age has direct access to that type of garbage. And I also agree many churches need to wake up to this problem and not only do something to build safeguards and eradicate the problem, but also provide help for those who struggle with this issue.
First off, this is very sad story. I believe this young man has a problem with pornography and was under deep conviction to deal with it. Since porn is not an "acceptable" sin to deal with in the church, this young man fabricated a lie and propagated the cancer story so he could cover himself while he sought help for his real problem. My prayers go out to this young man to be healed and restored. My prayer is also that the church can become a safe place for the millions of people who have addictions to pornography. Rather than being shamed, as many are, they should be supported as much a cancer patients as they seek help. Finally, I want to make it clear that I do not condone this behavior on any level. The church exist to help sinners and those who are sick. I just don't think we realize how the internet has made it so easy for folks to fall into porn addiction. We need to wake up and help create a supporting environment to help people deal with this powerful addiction.