On March 27, 2026, during a lighthearted interview with Catholic Vice President J.D. Vance, conservative podcaster Benny Johnson asked his guest, “You gonna release all the UFO files?” The Vice President, acknowledging his obsession with the topic at hand, declared his eagerness to “get to the bottom of it.” The two of them bantered for a bit about Area 51, but then Vance uttered an unexpected remark: “You know me—you know me. I don’t think they’re aliens…I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a long discussion.”
When the interviewer pressed him to elucidate further, Vance seemed to fumble a little for the right words, but concluded, “Every great world religion including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there…there’s a lot of good out there, but there’s also some evil out there, and I think that one of the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.” After a beat, Johnson quickly segued to another subject, but it was the UFO conversation that seized the imagination of the Internet over the next several weeks.
In a news release on the third of June, the Cardinal of Washington, DC suddenly announced the dismissal of his Archdiocesan Exorcist, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, for statements that “undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons, and exorcism.” Rossetti’s crime? Echoing a very similar position to the one that Vance had articulated a few months previously: “This is not de fide,” he had said in an online video, “But it’s my personal belief that probably many, if not most of these ‘UFO sightings’ are demons.”
In support of his conviction, Rossetti had cited Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with the principalities, powers, and rulers of this present darkness.” Drawing on his nineteen years of exorcism ministry, Rossetti had opined that demons prefer to hide so that they can more effectively manipulate their human victims. He had then enumerated some of the forms in which demons had materialized during exorcism sessions in which he had taken part: balls of light, shadowy figures, frightening hands, images of grotesque creatures. On a recent occasion, he had said, a woman known within his ministry for her unusual gift of spiritual discernment had examined the photograph of a UFO and immediately identified it as a demon.
Rossetti is not alone in his belief that so-called “extraterrestrials” hail from hell rather than a galaxy far, far away. In February 2025, Denver exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger said on the Avoiding Babylon podcast, “Exorcists come across demons who portray themselves in what they call themselves—‘greys,’ and they literally manifest looking exactly like these aliens that you see out there.” Ripperger also noted that the stories of those who had claimed to be abducted and, in some cases, sexually violated, by aliens closely mirrored the experiences of victims of genuine demonic possession: “If you strip away the veneer of that it’s an alien or a demon—it’s actually the exact same patterns, which is the person loses bodily control.” Ripperger and fellow exorcist Fr. James Blount of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) both pointed out another highly suggestive element of recorded UFO encounters—in many cases, speaking the name of Jesus aloud put the supposed alien to flight.
In the wake of Rossetti’s dismissal, online commentators have questioned the prudence of what they term “celebrity exorcists,” priests like Rossetti who have garnered thousands of followers on X, Instagram, and Facebook. To begin with, these detractors condemn the appearances of exorcists on popular podcasts as cheap self-promotion, exploiting the intense sufferings of those afflicted by demonic possession for entertainment. Others accuse these priests of fanaticism born of an unhealthy fixation on the demonic.
In actuality, at least in the case of Msgr. Rossetti, both of these claims are deeply flawed. The online traffic generated by the priest’s approximately 200,000 online followers pales in comparison to the tens of billions of views harnessed by the mega-popular platform WitchTok. Attractively illustrated books like The Junior Tarot Reader’s Handbook: A Kid’s Guide to Reading Cards, published in 2022, pop up in the children’s section of the library. Tech-savvy teens can access Ouija boards and psychic readings online. What could provide a more convincing warning against these practices than the public testimony of holy priests who have observed firsthand the devastation that can ensue when Catholics abandon the Sacraments, embrace serious sins and dabble in the occult?
An objective perusal of the content on the “Msgr Stephen Rossetti” Facebook page reveals a man of God who is gentle, measured in his speech, and devoted to the salvation of souls. An Air Force veteran who specialized in intelligence, Rossetti holds advanced degrees in theology, political science, and counseling psychology. Tapped by the USCCB for a study group on child sexual abuse within the church, he helped to produce a document that predicted the erosion of trust in church authority nearly a decade before the 2002 crisis.
For twelve years, Rossetti served, apparently very effectively, as President of the St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, an inpatient mental health treatment center for priests and religious. Stepping down in 2009 to begin a teaching position at the Catholic University of America, he told Catholic News Service that he hoped that his new line of work “might have a ‘low key’ aspect to it.”
It was a natural desire. By this time, Rossetti had already become involved in exorcism ministry, a difficult calling reserved by Canon Law Code §1172 to a priest “who has piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.” Drawing on his military experience, Rossetti characterizes the exorcist’s intense confrontation with the supernatural world as a physical battle: “If you’re in a knife fight, even if you win…you’re still gonna get cut.” To strengthen themselves for the spiritual combat at hand, he advises new exorcists to deepen their prayer life and go to Confession frequently—even once a week or more.
In one social media post, Msgr. Rossetti shared a personal account of the efficacy of sacramental grace against demonic forces. As one particular exorcism began to go south, the priest realized that he had been allowing the demons to draw him away from the work at hand through an unhealthy level of curiosity about them. Immediately, the priest paused the exorcism and stepped into another room to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation from another priest who was at hand. Upon his return, the prayers began to take effect.
In another post, Rossetti addressed the demonic tactic of attempting to produce discord among the faithful. To demonstrate the way in which these agents of evil capitalize on conflict within the Church, he touched on the Pachamama debacle at the Pan-Amazon Synod of Bishops in October 2019, when visitors processed into St. Peter’s Basilica bearing wooden statues of a South American fertility goddess as a tribute to indigenous culture. Outraged, two trad Catholic men removed the statues from the church where they were on display and threw them into the Tiber. The hollow figures floated and were recovered, undamaged, after which Pope Francis issued an apology to those who had been offended by the dousing of the statues, but not to those who considered the admission of naked pagan figures into the holiest church in the world an indefensible sacrilege. Four anonymous exorcists, characterizing the event as evidence of spiritual warfare, begged Catholics around the world to pray the Rosary and do acts of penance on the sixth of December to avert diabolical influence.
After one exorcism during the papacy of Francis, the subject of the exorcism passed onto Msgr. Rossetti a message from the demons: “Ask Joey how Francis is.” After a moment’s thought, the priest realized that the demons were addressing him by a long-forgotten childhood nickname, for dark purposes of their own: “It was demonic evil genius. In five words they tried to diss me, control me, frighten me, and then, their major goal to turn me against the Church hierarchy. They want me to be like them: disobedient and distrusting the Church.”
Many linguists have observed that the word diabolis, which gives us “devil,” stems from two parts collectively meaning “to throw across,” or figuratively “to tear apart.” Rossetti understands well how the devil works to destroy the Church by sowing confusion and discord among its members. As an exorcist whose authority canonically derives from the local ordinary, he is quick to counsel others to “stay in the boat,” that is, the Barque of Peter:
We operate under the authority of our bishop, and we strictly follow his guidelines. He determines our ministry, and when we are obedient to him, that obedience to the Church of Jesus is very powerful and very protecting…When I teach seminarians (it’s a joy, by the way, to teach these young men), I say to them, “Look. Throughout your priesthood, you might like the pope—you might not. You might like the bishop—you might not. You might like your pastor when you’re an associate—you might not. Be obedient, stay in the boat, and in that way, you’ll be fine.”
In addition to working with seminarians and training exorcists, the priest has developed many free resources for the lay faithful available through his Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3), St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal. Though Msgr. Rossetti has noted that full-blown demonic possession is extremely rare, he and other exorcists have observed a spike in the number of people suffering from increased spiritual attacks, many of whom have been helped by the Center’s online deliverance sessions, offered monthly at no cost. According to the Center’s website, www.catholicexorcism.org, Msgr. Rossetti receives no salary for his time, and most of his staff are volunteers or work part-time for modest wages.
It is difficult to find any content on Rossetti’s social media accounts that would stir ideological controversy within the Church. His posts and videos radiate a simple love for Jesus, the Blessed Virgin, and the saints, particularly the heavenly members of the St. Michael Center Advisory Board, which claims such luminaries as Saint Gemma Galgani, Padre Pio, and Saint John Paul II as special intercessors. His concern for the disintegration of family life (fewer marriages and fewer children with widespread cohabitation) is widely shared by Catholics of good will.
Therefore, it is hard to understand why Cardinal McElroy found Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media” so distasteful that it was necessary to pull him, stat, from deliverance ministry. His Eminence’s contention that the exorcist “undermined the Church’s very precise teaching” on demons and demonology has called forth reproaches from Catholic conservatives, shocked by the cardinal’s well-known heterodoxy (see America: The Jesuit Review) on homosexuality, divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and the reception of Communion by pro-abortion politicians.
Did the Cardinal take umbrage at Rossetti’s agreeing with a member of the current presidential administration? During an April interview with Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes, McElroy and two other liberal cardinals severely criticized Trump’s war in Iran and the ICE crackdown on migrants. As O’Donnell shook her head in apparent disbelief that American Catholics could vote for a president whom they knew would pursue an anti-immigration agenda, all three cardinals sat in silence, evidently unwilling to acknowledge the possibility that American Catholics might consider other priorities—like keeping a president in favor of abortion on demand out of the White House. In any case, Pope Leo’s promotion of the 72-year-old McElroy to the DC Archdiocese, weeks before Trump’s inauguration, suggests that His Eminence was elevated to that office for very specific purposes over a clearly defined time frame. He may not have cared to contend over the long term with a popular exorcist who had taken sides with J.D. Vance.
Whatever his reasoning, McElroy’s immediate and disproportionate reaction to what was (at worst) a correctable offense touched off support for Rossetti in many quarters. Notably, that same day, Douglas J. Lucia, Bishop of Rossetti’s home diocese of Syracuse, New York, published a version of the Cardinal’s statement on the diocesan webpage, pointedly adding a glowing biography detailing the priest’s accomplishments. More importantly, Lucia’s statement assured the faithful that Rossetti was still “a priest in good standing” with the Diocese of Syracuse.
The day after the Cardinal’s statement came out, St. Luke Institute, which Msgr. Rossetti had faithfully served as President for over a decade and to which he had contributed web content used on the nonprofit’s learning platform, made its own distinct contribution to the drama—in this case, a rather extreme act of disassociation from all things Rossettian. After assuring interested parties that the dismissed exorcist had no current involvement within the organization, President Reverend Patrick J. McDevitt and the Board of Directors announced that they would be removing all of Rossetti’s content from their site, www.sliconnect.org. They made this move “as an institute that conducts its healing ministry in harmony with the teachings of the Catholic Church” despite acknowledging that the teaching materials developed by Rossetti were completely unrelated to the issues which had triggered his removal. Before signing off, the SLI executives declared that they were “united in prayerful support of His Eminence Robert Cardinal McElroy and the necessary determinations that were made to end the Archdiocese’s relationship with Monsignor Rossetti and the St. Michael Center.”
A quick Google search unearths details on some of Rosetti’s courses, now condemned to wander endlessly through the Internet underworld marked “404-Not Found.” They bear titles like “Healing from Cybersex—A Guide for Confessors and Spiritual Directors” and “What Makes a Happy Priest?”, based on Rossetti’s groundbreaking study of over a thousand clergy, which determined that—among other things—most priests appreciate celibacy (clearly an item which must be purged). This wholesale consignment of carefully-compiled wisdom demonstrated more forcefully than any other aspect of Rossetti’s removal that he was not just being fired—he was being cancelled.
Amid all the chaotic sound bites, one person submitted a true mic drop—the man himself. Expressing sadness that the Archdiocese had chosen to sever its relationship with the St. Michael Center, Rosetti asked “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 vowed continued obedience to the Church, offered prayers for the Cardinal, and reiterated his constant plea to the faithful: “Stay in the barque of Peter, it will lead you safely home.”
Msgr. Rossetti knows well that without the backing of the Cardinal, his exorcism ministry in the Archdiocese of Washington is genuinely a thing of the past. At the same time, he acknowledges that it is not he who heals, but Jesus. Saint Michael Center will continue its work, though not in Washington. Supporters from Syracuse have urged him to return home and rebuild his ministry there—he has also gotten invites from Catholics elsewhere—including one in the Czech Republic! The monthly deliverance sessions, so beneficial to those who suffer from demonic oppression and obsession, family dissension, and trauma, will be restored, though the logistics are not yet completely clear.
Was Stephen Rossetti’s blunder, if it was a blunder, too dearly paid for? Only God above can say. It is possible, as one supporter of the former exorcist has pointed out, that the priest’s tribulations will draw even greater attention to the spiritual battle in which human beings are engaged. And that would not be a bad thing.
Some Catholics, and, regrettably, even some of those in authority, would rather forget the existence of evil beings whose only goal is to separate us from God and subject us to a life of eternal torment. They would prefer to believe that an earthly Utopia waits just over the rainbow, a paradise produced in the lush soil of radical inclusion and synodality. If stumbling upon the story of the cancelled exorcist woke up even one person to his or her soul’s danger, Rossetti would probably say that his own humiliation had been well worth enduring.
Because, as usual, there is a lot of truth in the words of G.K. Chesterton: “The devil made me a Catholic.”
