Vatican vs. Exorcist:
The debate about UFOs and Demons that cost Monsignor Rossetti his job
By Lygia Cabus
The debate over the nature of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs/UFOs) reached the highest levels of the Catholic Church and provoked a summary dismissal.
On May 29, 2026, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a renowned psychologist and then head of exorcists for the Archdiocese of Washington, published a video on his social media stating that, in his personal theological view, "many, if not most, UFO sightings are actually demons."
Rossetti warned that such entities would use the modern phenomenon as a disguise to manipulate the human mind.
The institutional reaction was immediate. On June 3, 2026, Cardinal Robert McElroy officially removed Rossetti from his duties as an exorcist and severed the Archdiocese's ties with the St. Michael Center, an organization directed by the priest.
In an official statement, the Church declared that the monsignor's statements "gravely compromised the Church's accurate teaching on the devil and exorcism," accusing him of generating panic and exposing the ministry to public ridicule.
Under a vow of obedience, Rossetti retracted his statements and removed the video from the internet.
The archdiocese refused to provide details about which church teachings Monsignor Rossetti had "compromised."
Christopher Baglow, who leads the Science and Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, commented:
"There is no formal church teaching on the possibility of extraterrestrial life."
Some official church exorcists operate without making their identities as exorcists public. But several, including Monsignor Rossetti, frequently speak about their experiences with demons.
Rossetti is the author of several books, including "Diary of an American Exorcist."
In 2025, he appeared in the American version of the Catholic documentary "Triumph Over Evil: Battle of the Exorcists."
The Phenomenon from a Fortean and Theological Perspective
Although the Archdiocese's punishment reflects the current institutional effort to secularize and soften Catholic discourse — silencing the debate on traditional spiritual combat — Rossetti's thesis is not new within the Fortean movement and parapsychology.
Classic researchers such as Jacques Vallée and J. Allen Hynek have already defended the "Interdimensional Hypothesis," suggesting that UFOs are not physical spacecraft from other planets, but manifestations of a "control system" operated by intelligences capable of shaping human consciousness and altering local matter.
If, on the one hand, the dark aspect of these plasmatic and shifting manifestations aligns with the theological concept of fallen spirits (demons), the same mystical logic demands a counterpart faithful to the Origin.
In classical angelology and biblical visions (such as Ezekiel's "wheels of fire"), Holy Angels are often described as units of light, fire, and pure energy interacting with our dimension.
FONTE
GRAHAM, Ruth.
Priest Who Said Aliens Were Demons Removed as Exorcist for Washington
NY TIMES. June 4, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/catholic-exorcist-demon-ufo.html
