In the past week, it seems that celebrity exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger and his supporters suddenly decided to mount an offensive in response to the article I wrote about his heterodox and dangerous views way back on September 18.

I can only speculate about what prompted this delayed reaction, but I hope this is a sign that Church authority has taken notice of the serious problems in Ripperger’s message and have begun to take action. As I mentioned in a follow-up article on October 21, the FORMED streaming platform removed popular Catholic speaker Chris Stefanick’s interviews with Ripperger — some with over a million views. Hopefully that was only the beginning of Church leaders waking up and doing something about him.

On the evening of October 30, I received an email from Jesse Romero, the host of the “Jesus 911” radio show who spent 50 minutes calling me names and hurling insults at me. In that radio show, Romero called me a “Popesplainer,” said I was incapable of being objective, said that I “goosestep,” said I am a “man of the left” (but followed that by concluding that I am not a man at all). He said that since I am “on the left” (I am not), I am one of “the damned the sons of Satan.” He called me a “modernist,” a “white belt” in spiritual warfare, accused me of “jealousy, plain, simple jealousy, uh, maybe even envy of Father Ripperger’s accomplishments” (no thank you). He suggested, “maybe he’s been put up to this by some of Father Ripperger’s enemies and detractors” (I wasn’t, for the record). He said I was part of the “woke Catholic modernist left” and also said he could “sense the spirit of detraction and calumny coming through.”

Later on in the podcast he said, “here’s my take again, Mike Lewis is a modernist.” He also made false statements about my beliefs: “He doesn’t believe that the traditional Catholic monastic approach to healing and liberation can reorient one’s mind and strengthen one’s will and be put back in a right relationship with God. Again, for him it’s all medicine.”

So when his email began with the old “pillow full of feathers” tale condemning gossip, I honestly thought he may have had second thoughts and was writing to apologize.

Instead, according to Romero, I was spreading lies and gossip about Fr. Ripperger. I was once again treated to a series of bizarre analogies and insults, such as, “You remind me of an 8 year old bully walking in the beach, he sees another kid who just built a sand castle which took him several hours. The 8 year old who has built nothing out of sheer envy kicks over the sand castle in 2 seconds flat” and “You’re like someone who has read about ‘floods’ and you’re trying to teach Noah about floods.”

He then moves on to the meat of his argument — Fr Ripperger’s credentials:

Secondly, by way of analogy, your [sic] like a white belt who is criticizing a black in Theology and Spiritual Warfare. Anybody who read your article can see that your [sic] way out of your lane. You’re punching above your weight class. Have you seen Fr Ripperger’s curriculum vitae?

Doctorate in philosophy Years Attended 1995-1996
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Rome, Italy

License in philosophy Years Attended 1994-1995
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Rome, Italy

Masters in theology Years Attended 1989-1990
Holy Apostles College and Seminary Cromwell, Connecticut

Masters in Philosophy Years Attended 1987-1989
Center of Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas

Bachelors in Philosophy Years Attended 1984-1987
University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA

Bachelors in Theology Years Attended 1984-1987
University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA

Certificate of Completion Years Attended 1984-1987
St. Ignatius Institute (University of San Francisco) San Francisco, CA

Fr Ripperger has been driving demons out from people for almost two decades. His books are the locus classicus on the topic of Catholic Spiritual Warfare, Fr Ripperger has spilled 2,677 pages of ink on Spiritual Warfare, what other Catholic even comes close to that research. Here are his Spiritual Warfare books:

1] The Science of Mental Health – 692 pages.
2] Dominion – 586 pages.
3] Diabolic Influence – 810 pages.
4] Minor Exorcisms and Deliverance Prayers – 454 pages.
5] Deliverance Prayer for use by the Laity – 135 pages.

Despite this devastating “rebuttal” to my article, I replied to his email. I pointed out (among other things) that he was doing to me what he accused me of doing to Ripperger. Little did I know that it was not really a personal email, but an open letter that would soon be plastered across the radical traditionalist internet.

I never claimed to be an expert in spiritual warfare, my intention was simply to draw attention to Ripperger’s popularity and the poisonous views he champions. Romero’s childish personal attacks on me refuted nothing I wrote and only made Fr. Ripperger look worse than he already does.

I stand by every word I wrote.

Further developments

Within 24 hours of Romero’s email, I received several other lengthy emails and messages from supporters of Ripperger criticizing me and my article. Keep in mind, I published my article on September 18. Why did his supporters suddenly begin to respond en masse on October 30 and 31?

Also unusual is that since October 31, Chris Stefanick has been posting and promoting clips of his interviews with Fr. Ripperger on X. Is he trying to show support to Fr. Ripperger by indicating that the removal of the videos was not his decision?

This priest has talked to the Devil and knows why he uses fear to manipulate people 😱#BestofCSS #ICYMI #Christian #Catholic #CatholicChurch #Christianity #Halloween #Exorcism pic.twitter.com/ORcAFxd5rW

— Chris Stefanick (@ChrisStefanick) October 31, 2024

Finally, I was quite surprised when a 2-hour interview of Ripperger himself with traditionalist podcaster Ryan Grant was posted to YouTube on October 30 in response to my article. Following a long tradition of papal critics, they refused to say my name or that of this website. Instead Grant referred to WPI as a “left-wing fringe website.”

Unlike Romero (and to their credit), Ripperger and Grant addressed much of the content of the article, as well as Adam Rasmussen’s article critiquing Ripperger’s understanding of the Magisterium. This is of course because our critiques of his statements were not ad-hominem but were based on his actual words in context. We made every effort to present his views accurately.

Even still, Ripperger challenged the accuracy of my article once: when I quoted two talks where he seems to claim that what is diagnosed as “bipolar disorder” is actually “demonic obsession.” In this podcast, he responds (emphasis added):

When I was speaking there, I was speaking very formally, in the sense that, first of all, I never said that all bipolar was demonic. What I said is, anybody who is bipolar can get off if they do certain things which I tell them to do, which we’ll see here, I’m the answer to that here as we go along, why that is the actual case.

So I never said all bipolar is demonic. I do think that once someone starts going manic, very often you start to see the patterns of diabolic influence in relationship to that. And so it tends to have the same kind of patterns that you see with diabolic obsession. Um, and so, uh, but that being said, it’s kind of a lack of precision.

These are the statements he made that I quoted in my article:

“There has not been a single solitary individual who has come to me that’s been diagnosed as bipolar that’s on meds that I haven’t been able to get completely off their meds and straightened out in three months if they do certain things.

Not one. And that is something that tells me — now there has been people that haven’t gotten straightened out, that’s because they didn’t do what I told them to do. But if, and what that’s a sign of is the fact that bipolar is actually a form of obsession, demonic obsession by the time it gets to the point where it’s diagnosable.”

and:

“Cases of bipolar are in fact cases of demonic obsession. I have always, every time I’ve listened to the explanation or the diagnostic from modern psychologists about a, um, bipolar, I just like, well, send the guy to an exorcist.

In other words, I’ve had phenomenally good success in actually using this blessing that the Church has in the old rite ritual — which drives out the demonic — on people who are bipolar. They actually get off their meds as a result of it. Which just affirms to me, and I think the explanation behind that is, it’s the fact that they’re usually doing something wrong to begin with, or something in their life has destabilized them emotionally or psychologically.”

I am unclear how his explanation that he “was speaking very formally” changes the plain meaning of these quotes to mean he actually believes bipolar is a real disorder and that not every diagnosed case that’s been brought to him is actually a case of demonic obsession (not to mention his statements suggesting that he can “get them off their meds” in matter of weeks). Further clarification would be appreciated.

There’s plenty more to address in this interview, including Fr. Ripperger’s doubling-down on his heterodox views regarding generational spirits, the Magisterium, and Vatican II, but that will have to wait for another time.

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Image: YouTube Screenshot.