HAS MONSIGNOR STEPHEN ROSSETTI JUMPED THE SHARK? POSSIBLY, AT LEAST HIS ARCHBISHOP, CARDINAL ROBERT MCELROY THINKS SO AS HE CALLS OUT ROSSETTI’S HETERODOXY! YES, YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY!

Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington attends a press conference at the North American College in Rome, Friday, May 9, 2025. (Credit: Gregorio Borgia/AP.)

In my most humble opinion, Cardinal McElroy made the right decision. I’ve seen some of Monsignor’s videos on Facebook and some of these raised questions in my mind. 

I have been to many talks given by Monsignor Rossetti in my diocese and elswhere, especially when I was vocation director. I thought he was very articulate. My only complaint back then and I made it known to him personally in a question and answer session in my own diocese with him, was about reintegrating priests guilty of molesting minors back into the ministry. He and the rehab facility in Washington, DC where he had worked had advocated for this in the 1990’s before this scandal overwhelmed the Church when made public. 

Of course Rossetti made it clear that he wasn’t speaking about true pedophiles who prey on young children, but rather those who abuse teenagers. He felt these priests could be rehabilitated and returned to ministry. But he also promoted transparency in do so, that everyone should know that the priest was returned to ministry, kind of like alcoholic priests who are in recovery, making it known they are to their congregations. 

But! But! But! I complained, what about the victims or potential future victims? He had no good answer to that question but, of course this was in the 1990’s! 

My other comment about Cardinal McElroy’s point about calling out Monsignor’s heterodoxy about demons as it is taught by the Church is that one could say this about the good Cardinal and his desire for women’s ordination and sex outside of Holy Matrimony:

“The question of the ordination of women to the priesthood will be one of the most difficult questions confronting the international synods in 2023 and 2024,” Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego writes in an essay for the Jesuit periodical America. “The Church should move toward admitting women to the diaconate, not only for reasons of inclusion but because women permanent deacons could provide critically important ministries, talents and perspectives.”

“The effect of the tradition that all sexual acts outside of marriage constitute objectively grave sin has been to focus the Christian moral life disproportionately upon sexual activity,” he added. “Sexual activity, while profound, does not lie at the heart of this hierarchy [of truths]. Yet in pastoral practice we have placed it at the very center of our structures of exclusion from the Eucharist. This should change.”

When one plays that type of game in order to change moral teachings or make them less important or to change doctrine as it concerns the Ordinary Magisterium’s infallible teachings on who can be ordained, that is Satan creating the loopholes, no? I am sure Msgr. Rossetti woould agree with me! But I digress!

Here’s an excerpt from Crux’s article on this own sad thing which you can read in full HERE:

The Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy, on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons.

McElroy said the archdiocese also was cutting ties with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based nonprofit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti.

The archbishop said Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.”

“There’s a danger here,” Rossetti said in a May 29 video posted on his Facebook page addressing UFO sightings and the existence of aliens. “As an exorcist I 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.”

“They can kind of get into your head, you know, and manipulate things in the world to influence us to do evil.”

IS THE NAMING OF AN EWTN EXECUTIVE, A STRONG, ORTHODOX LAYWOMAN, LIKE MOTHER ANGELICA, ALTHOUGH SHE WAS A RELIGIOIUS, A BETTER GIFT AND AFFIRMATION OF EWTN FROM THE POPE AND THE VATICAN THAN THE MAGNIFICENT MONSTRANCE GIVEN TO EWTN FROM THE VATICAN AFTER MOTHER’S BROUHAHA WITH CARDINAL MAHONY OF LOS ANGELES IN 1997? WELL, YESSSSS!

Mother Angelica and EWTN were and are no shrinking violets. Mother spoke her mind and orthodox Catholics ate it up, especially when she stood up to power. She was prophetic and often recieved a prophet’s reward, like Jesus did, from those in power. 

Those promoting women’s leadership in the Church and the heterodox promoting of female ordination (now they also promote trans ordinations as a development of their heterodox doctrines) hated Mother Angelica, absolutely hated her and wanted her taken down. They were emboldened when Pope Francis also spoke ill of EWTN for their audacity in criticizing His Holiness—he called their criticism of him and the Church the work of the devil. It’s almost like Monsignor Rosetti saying UFOs are demons—but I digress!

The video above I saw at Rorate Caeli brings back so many memories of my time in the seminary and later in parish life in the 80’s and 90’s and also as vocation director when we were using some of the pagan things that Mother rails against in this video from 1997. In fact, I think I saw this live on Mother Angelica Live in 1997–as a disclaimer I also appeared on her program “Mother Angelica Live” around that same time touting the restoration of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta, Georgia! No brag, just fact!

This is a time capsule to say the least. Most of what she is complaining about have been eradicated by Popes JPII and Benedict XVI. But the aging cabals, still alive, were trying to bring it back and under Pope Francis seem to be succeeding with Pope Francis’ brand of synodality—something most rank and file clergy and laity absolutely despise and wish would simply go away—we need a Mother Angelica today to call it out. 

With the appointment of a woman executive from EWTN to a Prefect for Communications at the Vatican, a woman shaped and formed by Mother Angelica and her EWTN network, the heterodox, aging cabals must be seeing the writing on the wall—Pope Leo is no Pope Francis, he’s more of a Pope Benedict XVII rather than a Pope Francis II!

Here’s AI description of the monstrance sent to her by the Vatican in the midst of all of what those in high places in the USA were trying to do to Mother to shut her up and shut her down” 

Mother Angelica's well-publicized controversy with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1997 stemmed from her on-air criticisms of his pastoral letter on liturgical changes, during which she urged Catholics to disobey his directives. [1]

While it is a popular legend that Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) directly sent a monstrance to EWTN in the aftermath of that specific clash, the famous monstrance displayed at EWTN's Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament has a different origin. [1, 2, 3]

The beautiful monstrance in question was originally a gift to Pope John Paul II from the people of Nowa Huta, a suburb of Kraków, Poland. During a papal visit to Poland on June 15, 1999, the Pope fell and was injured the day prior. As a result, Cardinal Angelo Sodano accepted the monstrance on his behalf. The Pope later entrusted and gifted this monstrance to Mother Angelica and the EWTN sisters in appreciation for their ongoing global evangelization and the perpetual Eucharistic adoration at their Hanceville shrine. [1, 2]

Mother Angelica and EWTN have long maintained a strong alignment with Cardinal Ratzinger and his theological perspectives. In the years following the conflict, Cardinal Ratzinger (and later as Pope) frequently spoke on Eucharistic mystery, and eventually awarded Mother Angelica the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal—the highest papal honor for religious—in October 2009. [1, 2, 3]

I’M ALL MYSTAGOGUED OVER THE MYSTAGOGY TYPE MASS, THE VETUS ORDO, SPECIFICALY, THAT I CELEBRATED ON SUNDAY AT SACRED HEART CHURCH IN SAVANNAH FOR THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY!

 As a part of the mystagogy of this liturgy, I start at the end and work toward the beginning. All is needed in this mystagogical catechesis are the photos as these are worth a thousand mystagogical words!

As we were celebrating the Most Holy Trinity by way of the Vetus Ordo, as described in Sacrosanctum Concilium, it is appropriate that this Mass shows us the most mystagogical aspect of this ancient Mass in its Vetus Ordo, no? 

By the way, we had 17 altar boys participating!

FOR THE MOST PART, WHAT POPE LEO SAYS ABOUT THE LITURGY IN HIS WEDNESDAY AUDIENCE CATECHESIS CAN BE SAID OF BOTH THE VETUS AND NOVUS ORDOS…

 LEO XIV (My most humble, astute comments in red embedded in the pope’s text.)

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 3 June 2026

[Multimedia]

________________

Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. III. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 3. Rite, sign and symbol

 

Dear brothers and sisters,

As we continue our catechesis on the Conciliar Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC), we wish to pause and reflect on some of the fundamental elements of the sacred liturgy, such as rite, sign and symbol.

The Second Vatican Council, building on the valuable work of the Liturgical Movement, has helped us to rediscover a truth that was very much alive in the consciousness of the early Church and in the teaching of the Fathers. The rites of the Christian liturgy are not a mere external covering of the sacramental mystery, a collection of arbitrary ceremonies, but are the ecclesial mediation through which the divine gift reaches us. Precisely for this reason, the Council invites us to understand the Mysterium fidei which is realized in the liturgy through rites and prayers (cf. SC, 48). (Keep in mind that SC is speaking about the Mass that was celebrated at Vatican II, not the Bugnini Mass, not that what the pope says doesn’t apply to it also!)

Rite gives shape to liturgical action and, through it, to our lives, generating in us a spiritual sensibility that makes us capable of savouring the presence of God through Jesus Christ. Naturally, this happens if we do not remain strangers or silent spectators (cf. ibid.) with regard to the liturgy, but participate in it with our full selves – body, mind and heart – in obedience to the Lord’s command. Through the sacred rite we are thus formed in listening to the Word of God, in giving thanks and in adoration, in fraternal sharing and in ecclesial communion. We discover that we are an assembly with many faces, united by the same faith. (Let’s face it the Vetus Ordo does this much better than the Novus Ordo which is all over the place in the manner in which it is celebrated. If nothing else was changed with the 1962 Roman Missal, except the use of vernacular for it and the Liturgy of the Word as it is now in the Novus Ordo, the 1962 Missal celebrated in this fashion (actually the 1964 Missal) and we might have experienced a new springtime in the Church, but alas!)

The rite involves us in a well-defined sequence of gestures and prayers, which can sometimes be at odds with our individual tendency towards spontaneity. Its logic, however, is not to constrain freedom within rigid frameworks. On the contrary, with the solemn simplicity of its rhythms, the rite interrupts our frenetic activities, leading us back to what is essential. We thus discover another dimension of action, not guided by calculations of productivity, and another experience of time and space. In the rite we experience a logic of gratuitousness, we find a pause that regenerates the heart, we recognize that we are preceded by divine grace, we learn to live in a rhythm inhabited by the Holy Spirit.

The grammar of the rite is interwoven with the signs and symbols proper to the liturgy. In it, as the Council states, “the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs” (SC, 7). The Catechism of the Catholic Church explores the value of these signs, recalling that “their meaning is rooted in the work of creation and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully revealed in the person and work of Christ” (no. 1145). The sign of water is emblematic: from the origins of creation to the Flood, from the crossing of the Red Sea to the Jordan, right up to the water flowing from Christ’s side, which becomes a sacramental sign of immersion in His death and resurrection.

“Sign” and “symbol” are terms that are often used as synonyms. In reality, a sign is symbolic when it is able to refer not only to an idea, but to an entire system of meanings and values. In this way, for example, when we are sprinkled with holy water, (herein, the Holy Father falls into the secularizing trap that the Novus Ordo has promoted! Would it not be better, more accurate and more liturgical to say that we are blessed with Holy Water, rather than sprinkled with it? Sprinkling is a secular term, blessing is religious!) our awareness of the gift received at Baptism and our commitment to new life in Christ is rekindled. Secondly, symbols are essentially practical in nature, being first and foremost actions: some simple and common, such as kneeling and exchanging the sign of peace, or more demanding, such as the constitutive acts of each Sacrament. Above all, symbols have a unique performative and transformative dimension, both in relation to the material elements of which they are composed and to those who come into contact with them, engendering a sense of belonging, touching the heart and mind, and giving rise to authentic ecclesial relationships.

In the Apostolic Letter Desiderio desideravi, Pope Francis, echoing a statement by Romano Guardini, identified “the first task of the work of liturgical formation: man must become once again capable of symbols” (no. 44). We need to allow ourselves to be educated by the rites of the liturgy, caring for the beauty of our celebrations with a delicate touch and without arbitrariness, and committing ourselves to an authentic mystagogy. The experience of a living and devout liturgy, accompanied by appropriate mystagogical catechesis, is the best resource for reawakening in everyone that openness to the encounter with God which, in the logic of the Incarnation, can only take place by involving the whole person: spirit, soul and body (cf. 1 Thess 5:23). (Once again, Pope Leo channeling both Romano Guardino and Fr. Z, tells us to read the black and do the red! Pope Leo says it this way: “…caring for the beauty of our celebratioins with a delicate touch and without arbitrariness…!)

My final comment, most humble as it is as it isn’t mine:

I would suspect that 99.9% of the people at the Wednesday audience don’t know what the heck “mystagogy” means and, as is typical, the Church throws out these words that have no meaning for people hearing them. It mystifies them as does the Novus Ordo.

But here’s the most dreaded AI’s description, which is good and would have taken me hours and hours to discover on my own, but with AI only a second or two! Praise AI!:

Mystagogy (from the Greek mystagogia, meaning "leading into the mystery") is an ancient Christian form of catechesis that guides participants from the visible signs of the liturgy and sacraments into the inner, spiritual meaning of divine grace. It is an experiential, lifelong journey of spiritual transformation. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The Roots of the Practice

Historically and in modern liturgical traditions, such as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), mystagogy is the vital period following the reception of the sacraments of initiation. However, it is not merely an academic review of doctrine. [1, 2, 3]

Authentic mystagogy involves:

• Moving from Sign to Mystery: Using the tangible symbols of the Mass (water, light, oil, bread, wine) to help the faithful encounter the unseen realities of heaven. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• Connection to Daily Life: Reflecting on the liturgy so that it progressively transforms your everyday actions, leading to a deeper life of prayer, charity, and discipleship. [1, 2, 3]

Why the Concept Remains Relevant

Throughout history, Church Fathers like St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Augustine emphasized that the mysteries of the faith cannot be fully understood before experiencing them; rather, their true meaning unfolds through continuous, prayerful participation. This ancient method continues to be promoted globally as an essential way to renew parish life and deepen personal faith. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

If you are looking to integrate the practice of mystagogy into your own life or community, I can help you:

• Find Eucharistic Mystagogy Resources made available for the National Eucharistic Revival.
• Discover spiritual reflection methods that connect daily life experiences with scripture and Church teachings. [1, 2]