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.”
2 comments:
The Cardinal and the Monsignor seem to have the same logical blind spot - missing the center for the periphery. The issue about "rehabilitated" offenders is not just that they preyed on kids/teens - it is that they were active homosexuals. He (and most of the clergy) simply refuse to acknowledge that driving factor. Similarly, the Cardinal confuses the cause and effect. The rule against sex outside of marriage does not "cause" the focus to be on sexual issues. The sexual liberty that marks our culture makes this rule the focus. A rule that has not changed for over 2000 years cannot be the cause of a (relatively) recent problem.
And, yes, there have always been people (clergy and laity) that have struggled to live these two truths, but the situation in the current era is quite unique historically.
To his credit, back in the day, the 1990’s, Rossetti did make it clear that there is a difference between a true pedophile who preys on pre-pubescent children and where there is not a cure short of chemical castration and those who prey on teenagers. He made it clear that a true pedophile’s adult sexual orientation is usually heterosexual but the sex of a child did not matter. But for those who prey on teenagers, yes, they prey on those to whom they are sexually attracted. And yes, the cases involving Catholic priests the far majority of these are committed by homosexual priests against teenage boys, although not exclusively. Any man who abuses teenage girls is normally heterosexual.
As it concerns some of the ideas that Rossetti has about demons, there are two problems. First, he had publicly stated an opinion that the Church has not taught, about aliens and UFO being demonic—he should have kept that private and not put it on social media in a video format. The other is talking too much about exorcisms. I think this is like Confession. A priest should not talk about those who go to Confession to him even if no sins are revealed. A person undergoing a licit exorcism by a priest-designated exorcist of a diocese should always keep strict confidentiality. I think Rossetti may have been seduced by the social media world that makes a person a star and then compromises his judgement. Just my most humble opinion.
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