Cycling around Washington in his black cassock, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti is the very image of a university campus chaplain.
Athletic and affable, he is a professor at The Catholic University of America. But there is more to this priest – a US Air Force veteran and clinical psychologist – than meets the eye.
Indeed, for almost two decades he has held a role shrouded in secrecy. It’s a role that lives in the imagination of millions. Books have been written about it and movies made, but those tasked with it have rarely spoken. Until now.
Because Msgr Rossetti, 74, is the Chief Exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington, DC.
And the unassuming cleric believes it is no coincidence that St Michael’s Center for Spiritual Renewal – the secretive location out of which he works – is set in the heart of the nation’s capital, a place many view as a hotbed of sin and corruption.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, he said: ‘We at SMC believe that it is not accidental that we are located in the nation’s capital of perhaps the most powerful nation in the world. We try to be, by the grace of God, a force for good.’
Msgr Rossetti is a member of the Rome-based International Association of Exorcists (IAE), which is recognized by the Vatican. He has conducted hundreds of exorcisms, a healing ministry in the Catholic Church, for over 19 years.
He is one of roughly 150 trained exorcists currently working in America – even then, he said, he and his peers struggle to keep up with demand for a service which, to many, might seem positively medieval.
Msgr Rossetti is a member of the Rome-based International Association of Exorcists (IAE), which is recognized by the Vatican
In fact, according to the monsignor: ‘Even 150 exorcists can’t nearly satisfy the demand in the USA. I receive many emails every day from people begging for help.’
He has been based in Washington, just a few miles from the US Capitol, since 2019 and in 2022 became the first Catholic exorcist to take his ministry online. These days, he conducts a monthly healing and deliverance session on the St Michael’s Center for Spiritual Renewal’s YouTube channel in which more than 25,000 of the faithful participate.
He has over 330,000 followers on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok and a YouTube channel combined. But, while the technology may have changed, the basics, when it comes to satanic possession, have not.
According to the monsignor, the Church has several very specific criteria for determining whether a person is demonically possessed set out in the Roman Catholic Church’s Rituale Romanum.
Those include whether the person claiming possession demonstrates knowledge of hidden or secret matters, can speak or understand languages unknown to them, demonstrates superhuman or preternatural strength and has an aversion to things sacred such as churches or sacraments.
‘Demons,’ according to the priest, ‘are terrified of Jesus and his Church, which the priest makes present.’
Msgr Rossetti explained: ‘The Exorcist needs to be a trained professional to truly recognize what is of the devil and what might be rather psychological or medical.
‘In the end, he needs to be morally certain the person is possessed to conduct a solemn exorcism.’
That evaluation is known as Discernment and must take place before an exorcism can proceed.
When the exorcism is underway, the demonic can manifest in many ways. Today, he has shared that process with the Daily Mail and revealed the tell-tale signs by which he ascertains whether he is dealing with the delusions of a sick mind or the presence of pure evil.
Exorcisms have been portrayed in various Hollywood films, such as the 1973 horror flick The Exorcist (pictured)
Look of Evil
One of the ways we discern the presence of Satan and his minions is by ‘the look.’ In the midst of an exorcism, the demons typically manifest their presence, especially on the face of the energumen (possessed person).
The demons come forward and the person’s personality recedes into the background. Sometimes, the person is unconscious, especially in stronger cases of possession.
In weaker cases of possession, the person may retain consciousness, but the person is looking in from the background while the demons take over. When the demons do come forward, their presence is unmistakable: the look on their face is complete evil.
Stench of Evil
Demons manifesting in an exorcism are reported to produce the odor of a decaying corpse.
Msgr Rossetti reports a team priest arriving late for an exorcism. He entered the room and said, ‘What is that awful smell?’ He said there was a horrible odor of death and decay in the room.
A possessed person experiencing a vision of hell during an exorcism session told Msgr Rossetti that the smell ‘was atrocious. It made me want to throw up.’
A possessed person experiencing a vision of hell during an exorcism session told Msgr Rossetti that the smell ‘was atrocious’
Demon Brain or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
While full blown possession is relatively rare, Msgr Rossetti cites, without disagreement, a senior exorcist as estimating that 25 percent of the population has some form of demonic obsession. It is noteworthy that in the US, the National Institute for Mental Health reports that 23.1 percent of the adult population lives with mental illness.
Msgr Rossetti refers to the more common type of demonic affliction as Demon Brain, which he distinguishes from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) by the ferocity of the attack, the lack of explicable psychological causes and whether the affected person’s symptoms are alleviated by prayer.
In his experience the most common obsessive thoughts are: you are a terrible person, there is no hope for you, God doesn’t care about you, you’re mine – I will never leave, you are going to hell and you should kill yourself.
Curses from Witches and Other Demons
The most popular session on the St Michael’s Center YouTube channel is Lifting All Curses. It has over one million views.
According to the priest, all curses and spells are invoking demons and can affect people horribly, but they cannot kill them. If they could, the monsignor observed, almost all exorcist-priests would be dead.
Msgr Rossetti prays online with participants to break curses by anyone against them or their families or through generational bloodlines.
In one instance he prayed with a couple who attributed their financial problems to a curse put on them by an angry grandparent who disapproved of the union. The relative admitted going to a witch to invoke her black magic and curse the couple, saying, ‘You will have nothing.’
The antidote for them included breaking any unholy connection with the grandparent, the witch and lifting all the curses.
Msgr Rossetti explained: ‘Because these curses came through the evil and sins of someone in one’s blood line, they can take time to expunge. Consistent prayer, deliverance, holy living and trusting in Jesus are necessary.’
Msgr Rossetti is the Chief Exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington, DC
Sex with a Witch
Msgr Rossetti has encountered some extraordinary cases over the years – some of which stretch credulity but all of which, he insists, were real.
One case involved a man who had an extramarital affair with a woman at his workplace. When he tried to end the affair, he was ferociously harassed by the woman through means attributed to witchcraft.
Msgr describes the woman as a high-level ‘trafficking witch’ who instigated her curse by applying a cream to her lover’s hands that was formulated especially for him. He also ate food the witch had cursed.
The cursed man reported a decline in his physical health, including lameness, and the health of his family. Inexplicable bruises appeared on his wife’s body. Despite attempts to sever all contact, the witch sent relentless text messages in which she appeared to have supernatural knowledge of what was happening within his family.
Birds attacked him out of nowhere. Family funds disappeared, replaced by black ribbons. His former mistress took credit for it all in expletive-filled messages saying that she and her ex-lover would always be together.
Msgr Rossetti has been working with the couple for three years during which the so-called witch’s attacks have lessened but not completely disappeared. Perhaps not even DC’s Chief Exorcist is a match for the power of a woman scorned.
My Confrontation with Hell: Real Demonic Encounters of an Exorcist by Msgr Rossetti, published by Spirit Daily is out now.
