John Of God Sentenced To 118 Years For Rape After Oprah-Promoted Healer Scandal Shocks Brazil

Brazil's most prolific alleged spiritual healer is now its most prolific convicted rapist, and the woman who made him famous on prime-time television has barely said a word about it since.

João Teixeira de Faria, the self-proclaimed medium who built a global spiritual empire from a small town in central Brazil, has accumulated criminal sentences totalling 489 years and four months in prison.

The figure is the result of multiple successive verdicts handed down by the courts of the state of Goiás across several years. The case has forced an uncomfortable reckoning not only with Brazil's faith-healing industry, but with the Western celebrities and media outlets that gave it an international audience.

The Sentence That Shocked Brazil

On 15 September 2023, Goiás state criminal court Judge Marcos Boechat sentenced Faria to 118 years, six months and 15 days in prison. The ruling grouped 17 cases against Faria, covering charges of rape, rape via fraud, and rape of a vulnerable individual, according to the Goiás court's official statement, as reported by Agence France-Presse. That sentence alone would keep a man behind bars for longer than the average human lifespan, yet it was not even his first conviction.

The Goiás courts had first found Faria guilty of rape in December 2019, handing down a sentence of 19 years and four months for the sexual assault of four women. A month into 2020, a second guilty verdict added another 40 years for five additional victims. Further sentences for sexual crimes followed, and a separate conviction for illegal firearms possession was also recorded.

By the time the September 2023 ruling arrived, the cumulative total had surpassed 489 years and four months. Brazilian law, however, caps the actual time any individual serves at 40 years, meaning Faria, born on 24 June 1942, will in practice spend the remainder of his life in custody.

Faria has consistently denied all allegations. His press office issued a statement in the early days of the scandal declaring that he 'vehemently denies having committed any inappropriate behaviour during his treatments,' according to NBC News, which cited a statement to Brazil's G1 news portal. He has not issued any public response to the subsequent convictions.

A Decades-Long Abuse Of Faith

Faria operated out of Abadiânia, a town of roughly 15,000 people located around 120 kilometres south-west of Brasília. His centre, the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, attracted tens of thousands of visitors a month at the height of his fame, among them people who had exhausted conventional medical options and travelled from across South America, Europe and North America seeking cures.

He offered what he called 'visible' and 'invisible' surgeries, the former involving physical interventions such as nasal probing and eye scrapings, carried out without anaesthesia or any medical qualification.

The allegations against him span decades. Prosecutors in Goiás ultimately established that the crimes proven in court were committed between 1986 and 2018. In the 36 hours following the initial four women's appearance on Brazilian television channel TV Globo in December 2018, the Goiás state prosecution office received 78 further complaints, according to prosecutor Patrícia Otoni, as reported by the New York Times at the time. More than 600 women ultimately came forward from across Brazil and abroad, according to court records, with victims ranging in age from nine to 67.

Among them was his own daughter, Dalva Teixeira de Sousa. In a 2018 interview with the Brazilian magazine Veja, she stated that her father had raped and beaten her, calling him 'a monster.' She told the magazine she had experienced the abuse from the age of nine after being taken from her mother's home, and that it continued until she ran away at 14.

Oprah's Role And Her Response

Faria's rise to international prominence ran directly through Oprah Winfrey's media empire. On 17 November 2010, O Magazine published a profile by then editor-in-chief Susan Casey, entitled 'Leap of Faith: Meet John of God.' It described Casey's visit to the Casa and was accompanied by coverage on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in an episode titled 'Do You Believe in Miracles?'

That exposure sent a wave of international visitors to Abadiânia. Two years later, Winfrey herself travelled to Brazil. On 17 March 2013, Season 2, Episode 116 of Oprah's Next Chapter aired, featuring her meeting with Faria at the Casa. Winfrey wrote at the time that she had felt 'tears of gratitude' while watching Faria perform what appeared to be surgery.

Winfrey also posted on X (then Twitter) on 10 March 2013, writing: 'Have you all heard of John of God? My visit with him is next week. Really fascinating. #NextChapter.'

When the abuse allegations became public in December 2018, Winfrey issued a statement to the New York Times. In it, she said: 'I went to Brazil in 2012 to tape an episode of Oprah's Next Chapter that explored the controversial healing methods of John of God. The episode aired in 2013. I empathize with the women now coming forward and hope justice is served.' She removed the episode from her platforms. Winfrey has made no further public statements on the case, despite five successive criminal convictions since 2019.

The New York Times at the time described Faria as 'the first major Brazilian casualty of the #MeToo movement.' His profile had been amplified not only by Winfrey but also by ABC News's Primetime Live in 2005, though sceptic James Randi later said that portions of his interview criticising Faria had been cut from the broadcast. Faria's website had listed former US president Bill Clinton, actress Shirley MacLaine and model Naomi Campbell among those who had visited the Casa, according to Gateway Pundit's Brazilian correspondent Paul Serran.

Where The Case Stands Now

Faria is currently held at the Aparecida de Goiânia Complex in the state of Goiás. As of the most recent reporting, he remains under a combination of imprisonment and periodic house arrest determinations. The latter granted at various points due to his age, now 83, and his documented health conditions, which include stomach cancer diagnosed in 2015. Across the span of the legal proceedings, all cases have been conducted behind closed doors to protect the identities of the complainants.

The Netflix documentary notes in its closing credits that dozens of women were still awaiting court decisions on their individual cases as of the time of publication in 2021. Further sentences were handed down in 2022 and 2023 beyond those already noted, with the cumulative total of 489 years and four months representing judgements across multiple trials rather than a single proceeding.

The case remains the largest sexual abuse prosecution in Brazilian judicial history by volume of complainants. Goiás state prosecutors set up a dedicated task force of five prosecutors and two psychologists to handle the caseload, a structure that itself became a model for how Brazilian courts approach high-volume sexual crime investigations.

The man Oprah Winfrey once described as 'fascinating' is serving what amounts to a life sentence. The hundreds of women who survived him are still waiting to see every case reach a verdict.