How Faith Healed a Shooting Survivor: Andre Abouharb on Trauma, Forgiveness and Purpose

There are moments in life that split everything into before and after. For Andre Abouharb, founder and director of Catholic Apparel, that moment came on an ordinary night out when he was shot behind the left knee while trying to protect a neighbour in a brawl. He was in his early twenties. The people who shot him were never caught.

What happened next is one of the most honest accounts of trauma recovery, faith healing, and the search for purpose that the Finding Sanctuary podcast has ever aired. If you are carrying something heavy right now, this one is for you.

Key Takeaways

The family prayers you say when nothing is happening are the ones you will draw on when everything falls apart. Real courage does not mean the fear disappears. It means you keep moving while the fear is still there. Shifting your focus from yourself onto others is one of the most effective paths out of darkness. Creative expression, whether poetry, music, or journaling, is a legitimate and powerful mental health tool. Forgiveness is possible even when you never find out who wronged you. The key to suffering is acceptance, and that acceptance can take years. Integrating spirituality and psychology gives you a more complete picture of what healing actually looks like.

A Normal Night That Changed Everything

Andre grew up in a Maronite Catholic home, attended Mass every week, and by his own account had a completely normal childhood. It was only after finishing school that life started to get complicated. More freedom, more decisions, more temptation. On this particular night, he was not looking for trouble. He was at home watching footy, went out with his brother and neighbours on a whim, and then watched a friend get swallowed up in a brawl.

He jumped in to help. That instinct to protect someone he loved is the same instinct that now drives everything he does. But in that moment, the attention turned to him, and before long he was outside the venue with blood on his face, looking for a way home. Then he heard what he first thought was a firecracker. Then a second bang. And he knew.

He had been shot behind the left knee, hitting the nerve, the vein, and the artery. St George Hospital was two minutes away. His friend pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around the wound to stop the bleeding. They did not wait for an ambulance.

The Holy Spirit in the Emergency Room

When Andre arrived at the hospital, a team of doctors and nurses was already waiting. His foot had gone black with gangrene. His brother, standing nearby, quietly asked the doctor whether Andre would make it through the night. They could not guarantee it.

As they wheeled him into the emergency room, something happened that Andre describes without hesitation or embarrassment. He felt the Holy Spirit come over him. Clearly. Specifically. He was told to pray a Hail Mary. And he did.

As he prayed, he had a flashback of his life. Every Sunday Mass. Every family prayer. Every moment of faith that had, until now, seemed ordinary. He describes it as a spiritual well. You do not build it because you need it right now. You build it because one day you will. And that night, in an emergency room facing possible amputation, he drank from it.

This is exactly the intersection of spirituality and mental health that Hills Sanctuary House is built around. Faith is not separate from healing. In many cases it is the foundation of it.

What the Darkness Actually Looks Like

Andre is honest about what followed, and that honesty is what makes this episode exceptional. The darkness was real. He could not see in front of him. He did not know what tomorrow held. He was learning to walk again, attending outpatient clinics, dealing with phantom pain in toes he could no longer feel. Doctors treated him like an object. Police interviewed him. His family were angry and wanted revenge. And everywhere he went, people asked about his leg. They still do today.

The guilt about his mother hit him hardest. It was Mother’s Day when he was shot. Instead of giving her a gift, she received a phone call telling her her youngest son was fighting for his life. He sat with that guilt for a long time.

He is clear that the darkness does not fully leave. That is not the promise of faith. The promise is that over time, glimpses of light begin to appear. And those glimpses give you just enough to keep going.

The Choice to Smile

The turning point was not dramatic. Andre simply decided to change what his face was doing. He noticed that his sadness was mirrored in everyone around him. When he was down, they were down. So he made the hard decision to smile. It was almost a fake smile at first. But the room lit up. And as it lit up, so did he.

He also started writing. He had always loved rap and poetry growing up, following his older brother and finding rhythm in words. In the hospital, he rediscovered it. The writing became a time capsule for his emotions. Once something was on paper, it was out of his mind and he could be present. It is a practice he still uses every day in running Catholic Apparel.

This is what is sometimes called externalising in psychological terms. You pull the internal noise outward so it stops consuming you. Andre found it through gospel poetry and rap. You might find it through journaling, painting, music, or prayer. The specific tool matters less than the act of releasing.

Healing Through Service and Creative Expression

One of the most powerful decisions Andre made in recovery was to find a seated job and keep a promise he had made to himself in hospital. He never wanted to forget what it felt like to be in that bed. Because he knew that if you walk into a dark room with a good attitude and a few right words, you can change someone’s day.

He began volunteering at Westmead Children’s Hospital. He discovered Radio Bedrock, a Flintstones-themed DJ setup where patients called in requests. He became a regular volunteer, then eventually Santa Claus for the children’s ward. One night he arrived for his Santa run and went to find a girl he had met on a previous visit. She was not in her room. She had passed away. He had to find enough strength to smile and keep going for every other child on that ward.

That experience changed how he understood the paradox that Jesus describes. When you give, you receive. When you shift the focus off yourself and onto someone else, you are not depleting yourself. You are filling up. This is backed by decades of wellbeing research as well as ancient spiritual wisdom. Andre just lived it.

 

Redefining Strength and Courage

The conversation about what it means to man up is one of the sharpest in the episode. Andre is clear that he does not mean suppress your fear and pretend to be tough. He means keep driving. He uses the image of driving through a storm. You could turn around and go home. But if you keep going, the storm will pass.

Courage, he says, is not the absence of fear. The fear is still there. He still does not know what the doctor will say at his next appointment. He still cannot wiggle his toes. He was once told his toes would fall off within five years. He chooses not to spend his days waiting for that. He takes one day at a time, and he finds that in the Stations of the Cross, in the words “may we share in your passion, leading us from death to life,” there is a map for exactly this kind of suffering.

That reframing, from life to death to death to life, is a shift that faith uniquely offers. Psychology can help you cope with suffering. Spirituality can help you find meaning inside it. You need both.

Forgiveness Without an Answer

Twenty-five years later, Andre does not know who shot him. The people were never caught. He was never given a name, a face, or a reason. And he has forgiven them.

Not because it was easy. Not because they deserved it. But because holding onto it would have kept him in the nightclub forever. He looks at where he is now, Catholic Apparel, the music, the volunteering, the marriage, the kids, and he says clearly that none of it would exist without what happened that night. God was in control. He just had to trust it.

Forgiveness, as a trauma recovery strategy, is well supported by research. It is not about excusing what happened. It is about freeing yourself from the ongoing weight of it. Andre did not forgive because he had an answer. He forgave because he accepted he never would, and chose to live forward anyway.

Catholic Apparel and the 3pm Prayer

Catholic Apparel grew out of this entire journey. Andre channels his creativity, his faith, his experience of suffering, and his desire to serve into a brand that makes Catholic identity visible and accessible. He records music under the name CA, with his first album titled 3pm, named for the clock he stared at in every hospital waiting room, the hour of the crucifixion.

He gives listeners a simple practice to take away. Set an alarm for 3pm. Pray for one minute. Remember what Christ carried. It is a small act, but as Andre has spent his whole life demonstrating, small acts of faith build a spiritual well. And you never know when you will need to draw from it.

 

 You Can Find Your Sanctuary Too

If you are in the middle of something right now, a diagnosis, a loss, a relationship falling apart, a faith that feels distant, Andre’s message is simple and he says it more than once. Time heals. Hang in there. The storm will pass.

Hills Sanctuary House exists to walk alongside you in that process. Whether you are looking for counselling, community, or simply a space to breathe, we are here. Visit us at hshl.org.au and take the first step toward finding your sanctuary.