Dear Alan:

Thank you for asking about this situation because it relates to a very important points and cautions concerning some prayer practices.

First, I should mention that I do not have a disdain for the Charismatic Movement per se. I have charismatic gifts myself, and I teach others how to find and use their charismatic gifts.

My criticism of the Charismatic Movement in the Catholic Church is 1) that so many of the people in the movement are contaminated with Pentecostal charismatic ideas; and 2) Charismatics tend to view the world and evaluate the world around them and their experiences with emotional and subjective eyes which is contrary to the faculty of reason that is taught by the Bible, the Church, the advice of the Saints, and by plain common sense.

As I have said many times, the charismatic experience can be a great asset to a person and to the Church IF, and only IF, it is conducted with the proper reasoned thinking, proper use of gifts, and with fidelity to the Church and the Catholic worldview. I will not go into that more since I have already thoroughly explained my position on this in other posts (click here).

As for your friend Corrine, regardless of the unusual "coincidence" of her contracting this rare form of cancer and Debra's remission of the same cancer, this most likely does fall within the mathematical probabilities of coincidence. We need to be careful jumping to conclusions to a spiritual cause or source. Corrine contracting this cancer may, in fact, be mere coincidence. People in general are unaware of how some very remarkable events that appear miraculously interlinked actually do fall within the mathematical probabilities of coincidence.

There are three practices common with charismatic healers and deliverance counselors for which one needs to be very careful: 1) laying on of hands; 2) praying in tongues; and 3) praying by proxy.

1) Laying on of Hands, it is possible to have a demonic transference by touching a person who is demonized. This should not be attempted as a matter of course, and should never be done without specific permission of the person.

2) Praying in Tongues, often in conjunction with the laying on of hands, can be a really serious problem if those tongues are not from God. While tongues speakers will fight tooth and nail that their tongues of from God and produces good fruits, the facts do not always bear that out.

There is more than a few documented cases, which I have mentioned before in other posts, where a sincere tongues speaker was utterly unaware that she was actually cursing God in her tongues. Almost no one has their tongues "tested" by the Biblical test and thus they really do not know for sure if their tongues is truly from God or not. Satan easily counterfeits this "gift."

Thus, while laying on of hands and praying in tongues, the pray-er could be actually cursing the person for all he knows.

Speaking in tongues is one of the symptoms listed in the Official Rite of Exorcism of the Church as a symptom of demonization. There are many cases of people demonized through people laying hands upon them praying in tongues.

There is no valid reason to speak in tongues to begin with when doing healing and deliverance work. And since tongues is so easily counterfeited by Satan and since we cannot know what we are saying, why take the risk. St. Paul said that it is better to understand what one is saying.

3) Praying by Proxy, can also be dangerous as one is "standing in" for another and by that may be attacked by the demons of the person being prayed for.

In addition, the whole concept of healing/praying by proxy is one that comes from non-Christian sources. This technique is very popular with witches and shamans and other "new age" healers. Here is an explanation from one witch practitioner:

Someone else, usually the practitioner, stands in for the client.  Receiving the notes from the session, usually confirms the experience of the session, for the client.

If you consider that our body-mind-spirit system at a sub-atomic level is a vibrating field of frequencies, it becomes hard to distinguish where one energy field begins and ends.  This observation by scientists of unified field theory that we are all interconnected.   A vibration change in one part of the system is felt throughout the system or universe much like stubbing your big toe is felt throughout your body.

 The theory is that we are all interconnected cosmically and thus a proxy can be the focus of energy that is sent out to the absent person to affect them for healing or deliverance. This theory is part of the energy-flow-connection-universe cosmology of oriental occultism. On a mathematical perspective this theory borrows from the Butterfly Effect of Chaos Theory (that a butterfly flapping his wings in India can cause a tornado in Kansas) but believes that the effect can be directed specifically to the intended person.

Although the Charismatics are unaware of the source of the concept of "proxy", they are, nevertheless, involving themselves in an activity that is not based in Christianity and that can be spiritually dangerous.

The Charismatics justification for this practice comes from a misinterpretation of Daniel. To quote from a charismatic source:

Daniel intercedes for his people.

In chapter 9, where Daniel prays for his people, we discover that he prays intercessory prayers as if he, Daniel, is the transgressor. He says, "We have sinned and done wrong" (verse 5). "We have not listened to your servants the prophets" (verse 6). "To us, O Lord, belongs open shame" (verse 7) etc.

Daniel understood the key to intercessory prayer is to "stand in" for the guilty by proxy, praying their prayers for them---as if you are the transgressor.

In Charismatic circles there is a common expression that is used, and it?s called standing proxy for someone. And sometimes someone will go forward in a meeting for prayer and they will say, "I don?t have a need myself, but I?m standing proxy for someone else. There is someone who is at home lying in bed sick, and so I?m standing in their place and I want you to pray over me as though you were praying over that person." It?s the same kind of thing. You actually become that person and pray as that person in the spirit. Therefore you can pray with full authority on that person?s behalf.

Perhaps the person you're praying for has been beaten into unconsciousness and is dying and therefore cannot pray for themselves, but their spirit has reached out to God. God will move upon you as an intercessor and you will enter into the experience of that person who?s lying unconscious, and you will pray for them the prayer that they cannot pray. And you will release the authority of God to bring about deliverance, victory and healing or whatever is needed.

This language "And you will release the authority of God to bring about deliverance" is remarkably similar to the witches explanation of proxy "releasing" energy toward the absent person to heal them.

In addition to this procedure having a smattering of mediumship to it, these Pentecostals have taken a passage from Daniel and invented a prayer technique that Daniel never practiced.

In this passage in Daniel, the prophet is not praying in proxy for an individual, he is praying an intercessory prayer for Israel. He says "we have sinned" in the same context as you or I may pray to God, "We have sinned" meaning "America has sinned."

This is just a intercessory prayer. Daniel is not standing in proxy.

This is an example of the poor thinking, weak theology, and subjective analysis that is typical with Pentecostal Charismatics.

While many may say that proxy is just a form of intercessory prayer, I would say to them, "why not then pray an intercessory prayer and not include the proxy technique practiced by witches and shamans, and for which there is no theologically justification?"

The idea of proxy is a Pentecostal contamination and should not be practiced by Catholics.

As Catholics we have intercessory prayer from ourselves and through the Saints; the dubious proxy method is not needed.

You ask how bad things could come from a prayerful and Christ-centered prayer meeting. Bad things can happen no matter how well intentioned and devout a person is because of ignorance and misunderstanding of the person about these issues. This is one reason to stay close to the Church and the Catholic worldview instead of borrowing things from other sources.

Do not give the devil the opportunity is a well advised cliche. Avoid Pentecostal and pseudo-Pentecostal techniques that are not consistent with Catholic theology and worldview.

In addition to all of this, the other problem is people messing with spiritual things when they are not qualified to do so and do not really know what they are doing. This is another tendency of charismatics. This lack of qualification is seen in the use of proxy prayer to begin with and also on the selection of who will stand-in as proxy. Your friend Corrine, from the description of her reaction, does not appear mature enough and strong enough in her faith to have offered herself in proxy.

If proxy was something that we could do wisely, I would never allow anyone to stand-in as proxy without about four years of training in spiritual warfare and an additional five years of experience and formation.

The proper thing to have done for Debra was for the group to pray for her with the normal intercessory prayers that we typically pray.

As for Corrine's illness, it is probably a coincidence, but there is an outside and rare chance of a possible demonic involvement in her illness -- especially if there was a demonic element in Debra's life.

She needs to accept her situation, offer it to God, pray for healing, have others pray for her (but not by proxy), and pray Spiritual Warfare prayers for any demonic attachments that may be present.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary