Fr. Rossetti, Cardinal McElroy, and the mystery of unidentified ecclesiastical motives

In a video released May 29, now-former exorcist of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C., Msgr. Stephen Rossetti (a priest of Syracuse, New York) described his opinion on the phenomenon of UFOs and their possible connection with demonic activity.

A few days later, on June 3, the Archdiocese publicly announced that Msgr. Rossetti was no longer the diocesan exorcist, and it had ended any affiliation with his associated non-profit, the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal. Msgr. Rossetti stated in his own brief release on the site that he was grateful to have served as the diocesan exorcist for some 19 years. He offered an apology for any disobedience and encouraged others to remain faithful to the Church, as well as stating his intention to pray for the Archdiocese.

A skimming of the online reactions to this scuffle would leave one absolutely convinced that people have very strong feelings about UFOs and demons, and perhaps even stronger feelings about Msgr. Rossetti and the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy. However, one would also likely be left wondering exactly what Msgr. Rossetti said in the first place, or, worse, certain that he had said something that, in fact, he had not.

Some background is helpful for understanding this latest American ecclesiastical mushroom cloud. Cardinal McElroy, with his degrees from Harvard and Stanford, is the chief representative of the American hierarchy’s “intellectual left.” Pope Francis’s decision to elevate him to the College of Cardinals in San Diego–instead of his metropolitan archbishop in Los Angeles–was broadly seen as a clear sign that he was the Holy Father’s chosen son in the United States. Given the broadly progressive thinking of the late pontiff on important matters such as those related to marriage, liturgy, and geopolitics, it is no surprise that a transference of opinion and emotion occurred; that is, what one thinks about Pope Francis, one will think about Cardinal McElroy.

Contrast this with Msgr. Rossetti, a name known by devout American laity, rightly or wrongly, as a “celebrity exorcist.” The ministry of exorcism is not something one typically associates with the “left-wing,” and those who make themselves known for their work in this field attract cult followings of both the piously and politically active. In a word, as one of the highest-profile exorcists in the world, Msgr. Rossetti is one of the chief representatives of the American “pastoral right.”

This is an oversimplification–and that’s the point. People do not have the time, energy, know-how, or access to sift through the mess of opinions, web of relationships, and complicated set of decisions that span the decades of two lengthy priestly ministries. This is especially true of Msgr. Rossetti’s time as president of the St. Luke’s Institute (1996-2009, and again in 2013-2014), a facility for psychological assessment and treatment for priests, placiing him in arguably one of the most complex and sensitive positions in the American Church. Naturally, the details of his work there are not public knowledge. For 14 years, Rossetti oversaw the cases of dozens (if not hundreds) of troubled priests, and likely many priests sent to the institute for punishment or manipulation by their bishops instead of for proper psychological treatment.

The weaponization of psychology is a well-known phenomenon to those familiar with American priestly formation and ministry. If a bishop wants to gain control over a priest he dislikes, he may send him for “assessment” or “treatment” for his “problem.” One of the main places for such a sabbatical would be St. Luke’s. After this, the bishop and others will always be able to hang over Father’s head that he was so psychologically disturbed that he had been sent for evaluation or treatment “by Fr. Rossetti at St. Luke’s”.

So what is really going on here? Is this scuffle really about aliens? Every possibility seems to be insufficient to explain the sudden nuclear option of not only removing Rossetti as diocesan exorcist but also booting his non-profit, which helps to promote his work.

While speculation has blossomed as to the “right-left” paradigm accounting for the oust, with the liberal archbishop simply itching for an opportunity to get rid of this troublesome high-profile conservative exorcist, this seems to be too convenient an explanation. If the Cardinal wanted to remove Rossetti as the diocesan exorcist, he could have easily done so quietly and quickly upon first arriving in Washington, D.C., with the easy excuse that he was just shuffling personnel as any new bishop might do.

Could it be that buried deep inside of decades of sensitive professional actions and complicated relationships related to St. Luke’s, the Cardinal has other beef with Msgr. Rossetti, and simply wants him out of his way? This is perhaps plausible, but the timeline does not make much sense from a professional standpoint. While McElroy was Vicar General in San Francisco from 1995 to 1997, he was not a bishop until after Rossetti’s first round as president was over.

While it is true that one might feel slighted in other ways, it doesn’t quite add up. If there was a simmering grudge of that magnitude and staying power, we are left once again wondering why the Cardinal did not quietly remove Rossetti before now.

Several commentators have noted that such an abrupt dismissal of Rossetti cannot reasonably be ascribed to zeal for Catholic doctrine, especially given that there is in fact no magisterial position on the demonic vis-à-vis UFOs.

That brings me to what was actually said by Rossetti.

Several distinct but related claims were made: first, he does not believe in “aliens.” Second, that demons can “break into” the physical world, taking on various strange shapes such as shadows or other forms, which he says he has seen many times; third, that he personally believes–and only “personally” believes–that “probably many, if not most of these ‘UFO sightings’ are in fact demons, and they can do things that we can’t do,” such as very fast movement; fourth, that the point of this is to manipulate people “behind the scenes.”

There are several valid criticisms of Rossetti’s claims. The first problem is that the vast majority of UFO sightings are rather easily explained as rogue weather balloons or some such thing, and perhaps sometimes advanced (and confidential) military/surveillance equipment that is being seen when and where it is not supposed to be. One would certainly hope that Rossetti would agree to such a qualifier. What he meant to say was likely something along the lines of, “UFO sightings which are implausibly explained” by human technology and mistakes.

However, even a more cautious and reasonable statement like this runs a prudential risk, now being verified in real-time across the Catholic blogosphere: two sensationalistic phenomena about which there are very strong opinions colliding in the person of a high-profile exorcist is bound to create an explosive wave of support from those who confuse opinions for facts and jump to superstitiously inclined conclusions. The nuances of Rossetti’s statement–let alone the unspoken qualifier–will be quickly forgotten, leaving a wake of simplified and erroneous collective memory that soon becomes an untrue truth: “Msgr. Rossetti says all UFOs are demons; therefore, they are, and it’s impious and not really Catholic to think otherwise.”

It seems unlikely that mere concern over the wandering minds and loudmouths of the credulous keyboard warriors would of itself suffice for the Cardinal’s judgment that a somewhat poorly worded passing comment from a generally renowned exorcist would constitute such a threat to spiritual welfare that they “gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism,” as the Archdiocese put it.

If so, not only does this seem to be excessively punitive, but the Cardinal has fallen prey to a massive prudential error himself in a textbook case of the Barbara Streisand Effect–by seeking to draw attention away from Rossetti and his comments by active suppression, he has platformed Rossetti’s comments in the New York Times, Slate, NBC, Newsweek, and so on, as well as cementing the narrative swirling around himself of “left vs. right” in the process.

Rossetti will come out of this looking stronger than ever, and those most devoted to him will now not only see him as a wise and experienced spiritual father, but also as a living martyr.

We may never know the real reason for Cardinal McElroy’s actions. Maybe someone else just told him that this was the best thing to do, and he didn’t want to fight it. Maybe he was just having a really bad day. Maybe he is a die-hard “true believer” in aliens and can’t stand to have that challenged. Probably it is a collection of some of the foregoing. Ecclesiastical politics, like most human conflict, is not a cartoon. The truth is usually quite complicated and messy.

Whatever the case may be, one thing is sure: the truth is out there.