Cardinal Robert McElroy, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., removed a prominent priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he claimed that most UFO sightings are the work of demons.
Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse and a psychologist with 153,000 Instagram followers, said in a Facebook video that demons "like to hide" and that it was his personal belief that "many if not most" UFO sightings are in fact demonic. The Instagram page itself is full of wonders such as 15 Signs A House Has Demons, listing horror-movie plot notes against AI slop images of demons.
McElroy announced June 3 that Rossetti's statements, and his organization's recent social media activity, "gravely undermine the Church's very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism." The archdiocese also ended its affiliation with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, the Washington nonprofit Rossetti heads, which specializes in spiritual healing for troubled priests. Rossetti added that Catholics may believe in extraterrestrial life in good standing, he just doesn't.
The Archdiocese of Washington announced today that Robert Cardinal McElroy has removed Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., as an exorcist of the Archdiocese of Washington, and ended all affiliation between the archdiocese and the Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal located in Washington, D.C.
Cardinal McElroy said 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.
In a statement posted to the center's website, Rossetti said he was saddened by the decision:
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."
Rossetti told the AP in 2023 that public appetite for demonic possession and exorcism was growing, a market he served with books, a podcast and nightly online deliverance sessions. Pop demonology has always sat uneasily beside official doctrine: the 1970s double whammy of The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror have a lot to answer for. The Vatican, for its part, has no official dogma ruling out life on other planets or whether it has visited Earth. If it's out there, writes a Vatican astronomer, they may already have been saved.
Jacques Vallée still undefeated, obviously.
Statement from Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, on Monsignor Stephen Rossetti [adw.org]
