Cardinal fires D.C. exorcist who said UFOs are mostly demons in disguise
by Sean Salai · The Washington TimesCardinal Robert McElroy has removed Stephen Rossetti as the Archdiocese of Washington’s exorcist after the monsignor posted a viral video theorizing that most UFOs that people see are demons in disguise.
The Catholic priest and psychologist shared the video last month through his Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a nonprofit “deliverance ministry” in Northwest Washington that maintains an active social media presence.
Cardinal McElroy declared in a Wednesday news release that “statements made by Monsignor Rossetti linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.”
The archdiocese, which serves over 667,000 Catholics in the District of Columbia and suburban Maryland, also said it “ended all affiliation” with the center.
Monsignor Rossetti responded by posting an apology on the center’s website and announcing plans to “continue its ministry elsewhere.”
“I ask forgiveness for any ways that I have not been faithful to the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium, particularly in the cited video on ‘aliens and the demonic,’” he wrote.
He pledged to heed the cardinal’s decision and thanked the archdiocese “for its support and blessing” during 19 years as its exorcist.
Monsignor Rossetti, 74, is a former Air Force intelligence officer ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Syracuse in New York. He later ran a psychological treatment center for priests in Silver Spring, Maryland, and advised the U.S. Catholic bishops after the 2002 clergy sex abuse crisis.
Advertisement Advertisement
He gradually became one of the highest-profile exorcists in the country, publishing the book “Diary of an American Exorcist” in 2021 and amassing hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
At the same time, he served as a chaplain for baseball’s Washington Nationals and taught pastoral counseling at the Catholic University of America.
Posted May 29 on Facebook, his roughly five-minute video acknowledged that the Catholic Church has no official stance on aliens. But he warned that such sightings could reflect demonic influence.
“It’s my personal belief that probably many, if not most, of these UFO sightings are in fact demons,” Monsignor Rossetti said.
Online influencers and conservative Christian media outlets circulated the video widely, capitalizing on the Trump administration’s release last month of government documents on unidentified flying object sightings.
Advertisement Advertisement
Some church insiders welcomed Monsignor Rossetti’s firing on Thursday.
“He has claimed on his blog that demons send text messages,” said Dawn Eden Goldstein, a Catholic theologian and canon lawyer. “I pray that Monsignor Rossetti will use this humbling experience to reconsider his efforts to obtain ‘influencer’ status and instead focus on his first vocation as a priest of God.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez, a Catholic spirituality author and religion editor at the conservative National Review, countered that Rossetti is “a good and holy priest” whose online sessions healed her acquaintances.
“I just know Monsignor Rossetti has helped people tremendously,” Ms. Lopez said in a phone call. “It was jarring to see the announcement from the archdiocese, and I hope people will pray for him more than pontificate about UFOs.”
Advertisement Advertisement
‘Unfortunate incident’
Theresa Farnan, a moral philosopher who has served as a consultant on family issues to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the firing “an unfortunate incident” that illustrates the danger of a priest’s online comments becoming clickbait.
“Monsignor Rossetti acknowledged that the question of life on other planets was theologically neutral and clearly intended to warn against spiritual manipulation, which can occur whenever you place your trust in something other than God,” Ms. Farnan said. “Unfortunately, his comments were distorted.”
She also cautioned against viewing the cardinal’s decision as a “politically motivated” response to the Trump White House’s release of UFO files.
Advertisement Advertisement
Cardinal McElroy, an anchor of the church’s progressive wing, has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
“His job is to ensure accurate teaching of the faith in his diocese, and his response would have been the same no matter who was in the White House,” Ms. Farnan added.
Psychologist Thomas Plante, a professor at Santa Clara University, a Catholic school in California, described the monsignor’s video as a “provocative and controversial” effort to understand UFOs.
“We are all trying to make sense of the world we are in and the world that might be beyond us,” said Mr. Plante, a member of the American Psychological Association. “Our faith traditions give us a frame of reference to understand the world and offer meaning to what we experience and witness.”
Advertisement Advertisement
New Age craze
The Catechism of the Catholic Church identifies two types of exorcism prayers: one for asking protection from demons and one for casting them out from a possessed person. It cites the example of Jesus casting out demons in the Bible to justify the prayers as an ancient healing ritual.
In the Catholic Church, only an authorized exorcist may handle a demonic possession, which is rare and occurs only after a lengthy psychological evaluation.
U.S. Catholic dioceses have reported a surge in exorcism requests in recent decades, prompting an unofficial third form: priests trained as therapists who use part of the ritual during counseling sessions in full-time “deliverance ministries.”
Christian Smith, a sociologist emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, blamed a surge in New Age spirituality for the uptick in exorcisms.
“New immigrants have, since the 1960s, definitely stoked these fires,” Mr. Smith said. “But most of those newly interested are White Americans.”
The Rev. Vincent Druding, an assistant pastor at Holy Cross Catholic Church in New York City who works in deliverance ministry, confirmed that the church has no position on UFOs.
“But I affirm the principle that demons like to be hidden and sometimes manifest themselves in the form of visions,” Father Druding said. “Those afflicted by demons can have visions with an element of mystery to them, and it’s important to work with good Catholic therapists to do the emotional work of inner healing.”
Contact the author
Sean Salai
Follow author updates Follow Click to follow. Manage followed authors