Father John Hollowell — Claimed Healing at Lourdes (2022)

Diagnosed February 2020 Lourdes: June 2022 Not formally reviewed

Current review status

Father Hollowell’s case has not been submitted to or reviewed by the Lourdes Medical Bureau through the full formal process, and no Church authority has officially recognized it as miraculous. As of early 2026, public reporting suggests at most an informal early-contact stage in which Lourdes medical personnel requested records in 2025.

For chronology, the 72nd officially recognized Lourdes miracle was proclaimed on April 16, 2025 for Antonietta Raco, not for Hollowell.^[5]

Diagnosis

Oligodendroglioma in 2020

Public reporting says Mayo Clinic identified the brain tumor on February 11, 2020 after seizure episodes.

Treatment

Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation

The public record includes surgery in March 2020, subsequent complications, chemotherapy, radiation, and continued MRI monitoring.

Pilgrimage date

June 2022

Hollowell ties the reported disappearance of the tumor to a solo June 2022 pilgrimage to Lourdes.

Formal status

No recognized Lourdes file

No public record shows a formal Lourdes Medical Bureau submission or completed review of this case.

Primary-source file

Primary testimony Father John Hollowell healing testimony

Hollowell’s own public account of his diagnosis, pilgrimage, and claimed healing.

youtube.com Official Lourdes process page Miraculous healings

Official sanctuary explanation of the formal Lourdes medical-review process used for recognized cures.

lourdes-france.org Medical context source American Brain Tumor Association: Oligodendroglioma

Medical overview cited for the normal treatment and recurrence expectations of oligodendroglioma.

abta.org Medical context source National Cancer Institute: Adult Brain Tumor Treatment

NCI patient summary cited for the standard management context of adult brain tumors, including oligodendroglioma care.

cancer.gov

The Prayer That Preceded the Cancer

In June 2018 — days after Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was removed from public ministry following credible abuse allegations, and weeks before the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report documented abuse by approximately 300 priests — Father Hollowell was sitting alone in his confessional at St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Greencastle, Indiana.^[1]

He prayed the following, as he later recounted in Crisis Magazine and Our Sunday Visitor:^[1]

“Father, if I’m able to suffer for the victims — in imitation of You on the Cross — and offer my life in reparation for the crimes of priests, I do it willingly.”

He told no one at the time. Approximately one month later, in July 2018, he experienced the first of five seizure episodes. That symptom was the beginning of the diagnostic process that would result in his February 2020 oligodendroglioma diagnosis.

His interpretation of the connection, as published in the National Catholic Register:^[1]

“I prayed in 2018 that if there was some suffering I could undertake on behalf of all the victims, some cross I could carry, I would welcome that. I feel like this is that cross, and I embrace it willingly.”

At the time of his first surgery in March 2020, he had collected approximately 180 names of clerical abuse victims who had contacted him, and prayed for them individually during treatment.^[1]

Source status of the prayer narrative

The temporal sequence — prayer in June 2018, first symptoms later that year, diagnosis in 2020 — comes from Hollowell’s own retrospective account. He interprets the connection theologically.

Oligodendroglioma has no known environmental trigger, and seizures as a first symptom can indicate a tumor already present before diagnosis. No public physician statement has been identified that comments on the timing question in this case.

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Background

Father John J. Hollowell is a Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, ordained June 6, 2009.^[1] He has served multiple parishes in Indiana and has a significant Catholic media presence: a long-running blog (“On This Rock”), a YouTube channel, and contributions to Catholic media including Crisis Magazine. He is not affiliated with any medical or research institution.

Public documentation of the case

The healing claim has circulated through Hollowell’s own testimony and Catholic news coverage. Publicly accessible sources identified so far do not include named treating-physician statements, released imaging, or a hospital comment on the case.

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Publicly documented chronology

Diagnosis: Oligodendroglioma — a primary brain tumor arising from oligodendrocyte precursor cells. Diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota on February 11, 2020.^[1] This date coincides with the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, a detail emphasized heavily in Catholic coverage. The tumor grade, IDH mutation status, and 1p/19q codeletion status — the standard prognostic markers for oligodendroglioma — have not been publicly disclosed in any accessible source.

Preceding symptoms: Five episodes of spasm/seizure beginning approximately 2019. An initial MRI at St. Francis Hospital, Indiana was inconclusive for stroke; a second MRI at Mayo Clinic identified a stable lesion consistent with tumor rather than stroke.^[1]

Treatment:^[1]

• Surgery at Mayo Clinic, March 13, 2020 — approximately 85% of the tumor removed
• Post-operative infection requiring a second surgery (partial skull removal)
• Third surgery to implant a metal plate in place of the removed skull section
• Nine months of chemotherapy — with documented side effects including depression and suicidal ideation
• Radiation therapy (duration not specified in public sources)
• Returned to parish ministry: July 2021
• Post-treatment monitoring: MRI scans every three months

Recurrence (January 2022): MRI scans showed the oligodendroglioma was beginning to regrow. The same scan also identified a second growth on the pituitary gland. Hollowell publicly stated he declined further rounds of radiation and chemotherapy at this point.^[1]

Hollowell healing file

1. 2020 Tumor and treatment The public medical layer includes diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and later recurrence concerns.
2. 2022 Lourdes pilgrimage The claimed turning point is a solo June 2022 trip to Lourdes and the baths.
3. Afterward Later MRI claim The file then depends mainly on Hollowell’s own testimony about what later scans showed.

Open full graphic

Hollowell’s public file has three layers: a named Mayo diagnosis and treatment history, the 2022 Lourdes pilgrimage, and Hollowell’s later testimony about post-pilgrimage MRI results. Site explainer graphic

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The Lourdes Pilgrimage

Father Hollowell made a solo pilgrimage to Lourdes in June 2022, bathing in the sanctuary waters.^[1] He has described nearly missing the water line after getting lost. No vision or specific mystical experience is claimed — the healing is attributed to intercessory prayer and the Lourdes waters.

Approximately two weeks after returning, an MRI was performed. According to Father Hollowell’s account, the scan no longer showed active tumor tissue. Instead, he says it showed only scar tissue from the prior surgeries, and that the pituitary growth had stopped progressing. A subsequent MRI in November 2022 reportedly confirmed those same findings.^[1] His MRI monitoring interval was subsequently reduced from every three months to every seven months.

Father Hollowell first announced the healing publicly on January 30, 2023, via YouTube.^[1]

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Medical Bureau Status

The case is not at the stage of formal BMLD or CMIL review. In plain terms, Lourdes has not publicly taken this case through the official process used for recognized cures.

Status of the file The strongest public fact here is the medical-and-pilgrimage timeline, not a completed Lourdes miracle ruling.

Hollowell has a named diagnosis, named treatment center, and named pilgrimage date, but the case has not been publicly carried through the formal Lourdes Medical Bureau process.

Hollowell testimony and Lourdes process page Open source

At the time of his initial public announcement (January–February 2023), Father Hollowell stated he had no plans to submit the case formally: “As a parish priest, I feel like I don’t even have the time to go through all of that, getting a miracle approved.”^[1]

A Crisis Magazine article from April 2025 reported that doctors associated with Lourdes had since contacted him and requested his MRI records — suggesting informal interest from Lourdes medical personnel, not a formal submission or review.^[4]

The CMIL’s formal process requires a minimum of approximately five years from the healing event before recognition is possible (the 2009 Raco healing was not recognized until 2025 — a 16-year process). On that timeline, Hollowell’s case (June 2022) could not be formally recognized before at minimum 2027, and only if formally submitted and successfully reviewed at every stage.

What formal recognition would require

For this case to advance through the formal Lourdes process:

1. Formal submission to the BMLD with complete medical records
2. BMLD review confirming the cure meets all seven criteria (serious organic diagnosis, grave prognosis, instantaneous or rapid cure, complete recovery, durable, medically inexplicable)
3. Unanimous CMIL vote that no scientific explanation exists — including review by neuro-oncologists and radiologists who did not treat Hollowell
4. Diocesan canonical review
5. Formal episcopal declaration

No step has been completed publicly. Right now the case remains at the level of personal testimony and Catholic-media reporting, not a finished Lourdes medical file.

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Medical Context and Open Questions

Oligodendroglioma is a primary brain tumor that is not considered curable by surgical excision alone and has a high long-term recurrence rate. Standard treatment is surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Spontaneous complete remission is not a documented phenomenon in the oncology literature for oligodendroglioma; neither the National Cancer Institute nor the American Brain Tumor Association describe spontaneous resolution as a recognized occurrence.^[6]

The critical open question for any formal Lourdes review would be simple to state even if hard to answer: did the post-Lourdes MRI look the way it did because of a miraculous cure, or because of the surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation Hollowell had already undergone?

That is why reviewers would have to study questions like these:

• Surgery had already removed approximately 85% of the tumor
• Nine months of chemotherapy and radiation therapy had been completed
• Delayed imaging response to treatment — where tumor tissue continues to respond to chemo/radiation weeks or months after treatment ends — is a recognized phenomenon in neuro-oncology
• The January 2022 “regrowth” finding and the subsequent Lourdes MRI showing “only scar tissue” would need to be evaluated by independent radiologists to determine whether the change is consistent with delayed treatment response or requires a separate explanation

None of this review has been conducted publicly. No treating physician, radiologist, or oncologist has made any public statement about this case.

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What peer-reviewed science says

No peer-reviewed medical paper addresses, cites, or references Father Hollowell’s case. No independent academic or scientific coverage exists.

Coverage is entirely from Catholic-affiliated sources:

Source	Type	Notes
OSV News / Catholic Review (Feb 1, 2023)[1]	Catholic wire service	Primary reporting; no independent verification
Fox News (Feb 3, 2023)[1]	Secular outlet, religion desk	Included comment from Fox medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel (NYU Langone), who did not treat Hollowell and whose remarks were general, not case-specific
Crisis Magazine (Apr 16, 2025)[4]	Traditionalist Catholic opinion	Contains factual error on “72nd miracle” claim; only source for 2025 Lourdes contact
John-Henry Westen Show (Aug 2023)[1]	LifeSiteNews-affiliated Catholic media	Framed within Catholic devotional context

No peer-reviewed medical or oncology publication addressing Hollowell’s case has been identified in this review.

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References

1. Christian, G. (February 1, 2023). “Indiana priest says he was cured of brain cancer at Lourdes.” OSV News / Catholic Review. — Primary news reporting on Hollowell’s announcement; syndicated widely across US diocesan newspapers. Includes direct quote about not planning to formally submit to the Medical Bureau. Hollowell’s biographical details confirmed via Archdiocese of Indianapolis clergy directory. Note: Catholic media outlet; no independent secular verification of medical claims.
2. Hollowell, J. (January 30, 2023). YouTube testimony. — Fr. Hollowell’s own account of his diagnosis, treatment, pilgrimage, and reported healing, first announced publicly on his YouTube channel. Primary source for the sequence of events as he describes them.
3. Medical Bureau of Lourdes (BMLD) and International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL). — The formal process for evaluating claimed Lourdes cures requires submission of complete medical records, BMLD review, CMIL unanimous vote, diocesan canonical review, and episcopal declaration. See: lourdes-france.org/en/miraculous-healings/. No evidence that the Hollowell case has been submitted or formally reviewed by either body.
4. Wells, K. (April 16, 2025). “An Indiana Priest’s Miraculous Healing.” Crisis Magazine. — Reports that Lourdes-affiliated doctors contacted Fr. Hollowell and requested his MRI records. Note: Crisis Magazine is a traditionalist Catholic opinion publication; Kevin Wells is a Catholic writer, not a journalist. The article contains a significant factual error — it describes Hollowell’s case as potentially the “72nd miracle,” which was in fact awarded to Antonietta Raco on the same date (April 16, 2025). The 2025 Lourdes contact claim has not been independently corroborated.
5. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes — Official announcement (April 16, 2025). The 72nd officially recognized Lourdes miracle: Antonietta Raco (Lofiego), Italian, healed of Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS) following a pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2009. Formally proclaimed after a 16-year review process. See: lourdes-france.org
6. American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA). “Oligodendroglioma.” Available at: abta.org. — Disease overview including standard treatment (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy), prognosis, and recurrence information. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) PDQ patient summary on oligodendroglioma is also available at cancer.gov. Neither source documents spontaneous complete remission as a recognized phenomenon for this tumor type.