Worshiper stabs pastor during TV service

Evangelical pastor Valdemiro Santiago prays during one of his services in this photo from his Facebook page. Santiago was stabbed in the neck by a young worshiper at his church. The pastor survived the attack but received 25 stitches for a slash wound. VALDEMIRO SANTIAGO FACEBOOK PAGE

SAO PAULO, Brazil — An assailant stabbed a Brazilian celebrity pastor in a bloody attack during a televised service, witnesses said Monday.

Evangelical pastor Valdemiro Santiago, 53, was left clutching his bleeding neck after the attack at a church in Sao Paulo Sunday morning.

One of the congregants stabbed him in the back and the neck with a knife as the pastor reached out to perform a ritual laying-on of hands.

“The pastor kindly leaned down to embrace a young man, who took out a knife and stabbed him in the throat,” one witness, Bishop Jorge Pinheiro, told AFP.

Santiago was given 25 stitches in hospital and discharged after a few hours.

In a video message released after the attack he said: “May God bless and forgive the person who did this.”

A police source told AFP that security guards overpowered the attacker, a 20-year-old man.

“We are in shock,” said Pinheiro.

“We could never have imagined that such a thing could happen in a church — to see the pastor holding his neck with blood flowing from it.”

Police made no comment on the possible motive for the attack. Local media said the man was unstable and had been upset by something the pastor had said during a previous church service.

Santiago is a former member of the influential Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD).

He broke away from it in 1998 and built his own congregation called World Church of the Power of God which now has a network of some 4,500 churches across Brazil.

In his services, often broadcast live on television, he is known for claiming miracles such as healing cancer patients and restoring sight to the blind. CBB