By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper
Hallelujah and praise the Lord! A new preacher is coming to town — and he is making some big promises.
Pastor Michael Casale says he’ll start doling out “miracles and prophecies” when his new church opens this week in Bay Ridge.
“Bring the sick and receive your miracle,” said Casale, who will oversee the Cavalry Praise and Worship Center, a new non-denominational church at 367 94th St. “Come and receive your touch from the Lord.”
Casale certainly talks the talk.
“We do miracles, prophecies — more than your average church,” he told The Stoop. “We have performed many miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”
Casale claims to also perform a “laying of the hands,” an act where parishioners are touched in the forehead and often collapse to ground or faint from the power of God.
“I know it is real because it happened to me when I was 13 years old,” said Casale, who claimed to be licensed by the “Summary of God,” an independent ordination group. “It is a great feeling, but hard to describe. Kind of like electricity all through your body.”
Still, some local residents are skeptical of the self-professed supernatural powers of the new preacher man of Bay Ridge.
“Is this a joke?” asked Megan Desanto. “Are we in the Bible Belt? I am not buying any of this crap.”
Why Bay Ridge? True, the pastor’s day job is as a court liaison for the 68th Precinct in the neighborhood — but he says he didn’t choose Bay Ridge, but that Bay Ridge chose him.
“I felt called to Bay Ridge,” he said. “But there were never any openings until now.”
One woman said she might attend the first service on June 3. She also said that even though her mind was open, her wallet was closed.
“It couldn’t hurt to go and check it out,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “But you can be certain that I am not going to let my wallet out of sight for even one moment.”
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