Complaint Review: Diane Lyons Frasco Catholic Visionary and Secular Carmelite

Diane Lyons Frasco was hired by a family member to host a Catholic healing event for my cousin, a very sick woman with cancer. For reasons of privacy, names and locations are not included.

Our aim in hiring Lyons Frasco as our host and prayer guide was to create an environment of prayerful support for a cousin who suffers from cancer. What happened turned out to be the exact opposite.

Lyons Frasco claims to be a Catholic visionary and a secular Carmelite for over 14 years. She is also a painter of religious subjects, and she makes religious paraphernalia (rosaries, CDs, copies of her artwork) to sell at events. 

She claims to have had miraculous visions and revelations throughout her life. She also makes the claim that she can physically be in two places at once, a feat known as bilocation. In addition, she professes to be a spiritual healer. I mention these things as immediate red flags to discerning Catholics and Christians.

At our event, Lyons Frasco began by focusing on our sick cousin, who has stage 3 breast cancer.

She was given a microphone to lead the proceedings, as the event was packed with our large group of family and friends. The hope of this event was that Lyons Frasco would lead us to a prayerful intervention for the healing of our cousin's cancer.

Lyons Frasco spoke directly to my cousin and her husband through the microphone. She said that she understood our cousin's cancer had returned from a state of remission. She led us in a few prayers.

Then Lyons Frasco said something to the effect of, "Your cancer has come back because of an issue of forgiveness. There is someone in your life, and your husband's life, that you have not forgiven. Someone who has done you wrong in the past. The cancer is the result of this lack of forgiveness." I could see the shame on my cousin's face and her husband's face. Half of the family looked uncomfortable by what this woman had just said.

To a woman dying of cancer and to her suffering husband, she had just laid down a huge burden of guilt and blame! In front of hundreds of people, our entire family and friends group, Diane Lyons Frasco implicitly stated our cousin's cancer was her own fault! This is no better than victim blaming.

I am amazed, and so angry, that anyone claiming to work in the name of Jesus could easily blame a dying woman for her own terminal illness, and publicly embarrass her and her husband in the process! Saying that the cancer had come back because my cousin didn't forgive someone is mind-numbingly ludicrous. 

Lyons Frasco said her healing would only work if our cousin and her husband forgave this mystery offender. Instead, I knew deep down that Lyons Frasco was just trying to cover for herself if the healing fails. What a ridiculous, outmoded belief. Who could still believe that those who do not forgive are punished with serious illnesses? What Lyons Frasco said is appalling, absurd, lacking in credibility, and offensive beyond words.

If the healing does not work, and if the cancer continues, my cousin may very well pass away with this fake burden of guilt upon her! Her husband will suffer too if such is the case. All because of the delusions and victim blaming of Diane Lyons Frasco. I have never met a bigger religious quack, even on city street corners.

This was the major offense of the event. I'm amazed no one took the microphone from her at this point and asked her to leave. The truth is, the family member who hired her paid good money to be there. But the embarrassments continued through other family members.

After more prayers for our sick cousin, Lyons Frasco traveled the room and offered personal prayers and healing to individuals. She encouraged members of the family to speak out about their sins, with the implication that God would forgive and heal them for coming clean. For each person who revealed their sins, she performed a laying on of hands and asked the group to join in her prayers. 

A family friend tearfully admitted her ongoing problem with alcoholism to Lyons Frasco. Not everyone present knew about her addiction, but Lyons Frasco took it upon herself to publicize this through the microphone.

A young girl who was sitting in the corner was later approached by Lyons Frasco. She asked the girl what sins she wished to confess. The girl whispered something into her ear. Lyons Frasco then announced, "You cut yourself? How often?" The girl looked absolutely humiliated. I looked around to see family members shaking their heads and looking uncomfortably at this girl. I do not understand why Lyons Frasco felt the need to publicize this poor girl's emotional problems.

At the end of the event, Lyons Frasco and her son began selling handmade rosaries and CDs. In my estimation, she was trying to milk us for all the money she could before she left.

After everything was over, my opinion of Diane Lyons Frasco had been sealed. She is no more than a religious zealot, a disturbed and misguided fanatic, who makes absurd claims of power and heaven-sent quests from the Holy Throne of God Himself. The powers she professes to own have only been observed in the holiest of saints, such as Padre Pio. It is my firm belief that, although Lyons Frasco appears to operate with the best intentions, all Catholics and Christians should steer far clear of any services or products she offers.

Diane Lyons Frasco twisted what should have been a peaceful, prayerful event into an ordeal of family shame and victim blaming. Avoid this terrible woman at all costs! She is unsound. I pray that Jesus has mercy on her for all the harm she has done to our family through this event, in His name.