Washington Archbishop dismisses priest as exorcist following comments regarding UFOs and demons

Rosetti said in a Facebook post that by taking on the guise of UFOs, demons "influence us to do evil," and most of the sightings are "in fact demons."

By Kevin Killough

Published: June 5, 2026 10:04am

Cardinal Robert McElroy, Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., on Wednesday removed Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a popular priest, as an exorcist after he said that UFOs are the work of demons.

McElroy said the statements, which were made in a video on Facebook, "gravely undermine the Church's very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism."

Rosetti said in the now-deleted May 29 video discussing the existence of extraterrestrials and UFOs that, as an exorcist, he "wanted to raise that danger. And that is that demons like to hide. ... They don’t want us to know what they’re doing because they’re more effective when we don’t realize it," the Associated Press reported.

Rosetti argued that by taking on the guise of UFOs, demons "influence us to do evil," and most of the sightings are "in fact demons."