‘There’s no question in my mind’: Washington, DC priest loses exorcist job for comments about UFOs and demons

Unfortunately for Rossetti, who has worked in various positions with the Archdiocese of Washington since 1993, the archbishop of Washington, D.C. was not pleased with his statements. On June 3, Cardinal Robert McElroy removed Rossetti from his position as an exorcist.

Moneywise has reached out to Rossetti for comment.

The archdiocese’s statement says Rossetti’s recent UFO remarks, along with his social media use, “gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.”

Here’s what you should know about the strain of Catholic thought he embraces, and how it’s appealing to several prominent American leaders.

A small but influential group of charismatic Catholics

Rossetti’s statements don’t line up with traditional Catholic doctrine. But he’s not the only notable Catholic who’s expressed this sentiment.

Back in March, Vice President J.D. Vance sat down with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, where they talked about the federal government’s release of previously classified documents about reported UFO sightings, nicknamed the “UFO files.” Vance said he didn’t believe the various sightings represent aliens or natural phenomena.

“I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a longer discussion,” Vance said.

Both Vance and Rossetti express a belief that demons disguise themselves — potentially as extra-terrestrial beings — to work against God and humanity in secret.

“One of the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed,” Vance said.

Rossetti is connected to charismatic Catholicism. Charismatic Catholics believe that people can be given gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, and divine healing. They also focus on the idea of spiritual warfare — that God and the devil are fighting over real people’s souls.

Stemming from the Pentecostal tradition, the movement started to gain popularity in the 1960s with the Catholic Charismatic Revival.

Another notable charismatic Catholic is Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is part of the charismatic Catholic group People of Praise.

Exorcism: A growing, in-demand field

To the 66% of U.S. adults who consider themselves skeptical of the paranormal, the idea that the Church still employs exorcists today might seem as strange as saying that UFOs are demons in disguise. But demand for exorcisms is rising in the U.S. and U.K.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops describes exorcisms as including things like making the sign of the cross, exsufflation (breathing on the person's face), scripture reading, prayer and fasting.

However, Rossetti described significantly more dramatic rituals to the Baltimore Sun last year, including causing a woman to vomit black liquid, implied to be a demon exiting her body. Rossetti claimed that hours later, she received a text message from someone purporting to be the entity she “threw up.”

Per the Sun’s reporting, in the past 15 years, the number of practicing exorcists in the US has increased sixfold. According to Rossetti, even with the added numbers, exorcists are struggling to keep up.

“There are only about 150 exorcists in the country, and they are being flooded with requests, including from many desperate people pleading for assistance. We can’t keep up with the demand now — and it’s only getting worse,” Rossetti said.

But the rise of exorcisms could be harmful for those who receive one. One Christian think tank, Theos, warned back in 2017 that the rise of exorcisms in the UK at the time could lead to what it called “spiritual abuse.”

“This is a classic example of well-meaning initiative with the potential for spiritual harm,” the report says. “It runs the risk of becoming a sort of spiritual abuse — which can be understood as psychological abuse inflicted upon the victim by members of their own religious group.”