Monsignor Rossetti Continues Deliverance Ministry Despite Removal as Exorcist
In an August 3 email to subscribers, Monsignor Rossetti said he remains a priest in good standing in his home Diocese of Syracuse, New York, and will continue his work through the St. Michael Center, which operates within the territory of the Washington archdiocese.
On June 3, Cardinal McElroy removed Rossetti as an archdiocesan exorcist and ended all affiliation between the Archdiocese of Washington and Rossetti's St. Michael Center.
Monsignor Rossetti argues that he retains priestly faculties in several dioceses and exorcist faculties in two others. He also says his own bishop has encouraged him to continue the ministry.
The June controversy followed Rossetti's eccentric claim that UFOs "are, in fact, demons." Cardinal McElroy - who had removed him for this claim - later said the decision was not about UFOs but reflected his view that the role of an exorcist should be private.
Monsignor Rossetti has developed a substantial following through the St. Michael Center and its online "deliverance sessions."
Msgr. Rossetti's Controversial Past
Before becoming widely known for his exorcism ministry, Rossetti was president of the St. Luke Institute, which treated priests accused of sexually abusing minors.
In that context, Rossetti warned against making homosexual priests "scapegoats." Writing in Catholic World Report in 1997, he also discussed potentially undetected sexual abuse committed by women, arguing that inappropriate behavior by mothers could more easily be disguised as ordinary acts of cleaning, grooming or dressing children.
Monsignor Rossetti denied a connection between homosexual and pedophile priests and claimed that sexual attraction to children exists to some degree among a broader segment of the population. He also criticized what he described as a Catholic "climate of repression and/or obsession" surrounding sexuality.
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