The Catholic Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy, on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist in the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons.
The diocese also severed ties with St. Michael’s Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based nonprofit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, McElroy said.
The archbishop said Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the latter’s use of social media seriously undermine the Church’s very accurate teaching about Satan, demons and devils.” Exorcism“.
“There is danger here,” Rossetti said in a video posted May 29 on his Facebook page in which he talks about UFO sightings and the presence of aliens. “As an exorcist, I wanted to raise that danger. That is, demons like to hide. … They don’t want us to know what they’re doing because they’re most effective when we’re not aware of it.”
“They can get into your mind, you know, and manipulate things in the world to influence us to do evil.”
“It is my personal belief that many, if not most, UFO sightings are actually demons,” Rossetti added.
Rossetti also said that people can be good Catholics and believe that there is life on other planets, although he does not personally believe that life exists elsewhere.
In a statement posted on the St. Michael Center website, Rossetti said he was saddened by the archdiocese’s actions.
“I ask for forgiveness for any reason I was not faithful to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church, especially in the aforementioned video about ‘aliens and satanic beings,’” he said. “I believe it is of the utmost importance to be obedient to the Church, and I will continue to strive to submit everything I do and the Center to be obedient.”
Rossetti, who has more than 148,000 followers on Instagram, is a prominent psychologist and exorcist. His center specialized in providing spiritual treatment to priests suffering from various difficulties.
In 2023, he told The Associated Press There has been a growing and renewed appetite for information about demonic possession and exorcism.
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