Amid growing international concern over rising interest in Satanism and the occult, the longtime personal assistant of one of the most renowned Catholic exorcists in the world will be in Alaska this month for a series of talks dealing with spiritual combat against demonic influences, the importance of theological clarity and spiritual discernment, and practical tools to navigate a world suffering from mounting confusion, deception and spiritual attack.
Widely travelled speaker and instructor Kyle Clement is headed to Anchorage, Mat-Su, Kenai, and Eagle River. He is a consultant and internationally recognized lay expert in the fields of spiritual warfare and exorcism.
Clement is best known for his close collaboration with the prominent traditional Catholic exorcist Father Chad Ripperger, who founded a society of priests that now works under Denver Archbishop James Golka – aiding those experiencing diabolical attacks. Clement helps train these priests for their extraordinary ministry.
Together with Fr. Ripperger, he helped standardize how many exorcists around the globe now address extraordinary diabolical activity.
This past March, a group of prominent exorcists met with Pope Leo XIV and warned him of what they see as increased demonic oppression in a post-Christian world that has opened itself up to attack.
For the past quarter century, Clement has been at the forefront in addressing these issues. The protocols he helped develop are designed to bring clinical objectivity, right order, and classical Catholic teaching to exorcism cases.
Clement’s upcoming Alaska talks are sponsored by a lay-run Alaska organization called Sanctus Salutem, led by Deacon Dez Martinez and his wife Cindy, both longtime Alaskans who have been highly active in Catholic ministries around Southcentral Alaska.
Before his trip, the Alaska Watchman spoke with Clement, a seventh-generation Texas sheep and cattle herder who had no inkling he would one day play a leading role in addressing diabolical oppression around the world.
CALLED TO SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Clement’s first encounter with spiritual warfare ministry occurred nearly three decades ago, when he began observing recurring patterns of how animals prey on one another and pondered whether there was a correlation in the spiritual realm.
In particular, he reasoned that since demons are fallen creatures, their interactions with humans are fundamentally “creature-to-creature dynamics,” which they exploit when opportunities surface.
“Rules of predation, vulnerability, both mental and psychological health, all of those things, we have a lot more in common with the animals than we think,” Clement said.
About 25 years ago, he shared his thoughts with a priest who asked if he would be interested in committing to pray with certain families suffering from spiritual crises. At the time, Clement had no idea that the priest was an exorcist, or that his life would take a dramatic vocational turn.
“The demon is the most predictable creature in all the cosmos. He acts true to his fallen nature,”
As Clement prayed for different people, he shared his observations with the priest. Soon, other priests and exorcists began to call him for advice from around the country.
One of those calls came from Msg. John Esseff, an internationally renowned exorcist who served as the spiritual director for Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Esseff invited Clement to Mundelein Seminary in Chicago and asked him to assist in spiritual warfare ministry at the request of the late Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George.
Soon afterwards, he connected with Fr. Ripperger and began helping him form a curriculum for the Leo the 13th Institute, which was the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ response to Pope John Paul II’s admonition that every diocese has trained exorcists.
At that time, Clement began assisting Fr. Ripperger in working with those who believed they were suffering from diabolical influences – a job he held for a quarter century before retiring late last year.
Clement likened his role to that of a charge nurse who ensures the patient is prepared, the surgeon has everything he needs, and the assistants are properly prepared. As such, he would offer support prayers during spiritual warfare sessions, bear witness to exorcisms, and make sure the priest had everything required.
Eventually, Fr. Ripperger and Clement began receiving thousands of inquiries each year, and they formed a group called Liber Christo to better respond to the increasing number of cardinals, bishops, priests, law enforcement and other entities that sought support and services. The organization continues to offer instruction and training for lay teams and exorcist priests.
FIGHTING DEMONIC OPPRESSION
Clement described the protocol for dealing with demonic influence as “highly empirical” and scientific. One of the main goals is to differentiate between demonic influence and other factors like mental illness or erratic behavior.
“We go through a four-phase protocol, and we gauge a person’s responses to various stimuli, to various disciplines and prayers over a period of time,” he explained.
If someone is genuinely affected by diabolical influence, this becomes readily apparent, Clement noted.
“The demon is the most predictable creature in all the cosmos. He acts true to his fallen nature,” he said. “They want you to think that they are random and autonomous and do what they please, but nothing could be further from the truth. So, they pattern out much more quickly than humans.”
For those who are skeptical about the reality of demons or their influence on human beings, Clement points to empirical data and his many first-hand experiences.
After evaluating a person who is believed to be under spiritual attack, they are diagnosed as either demonically “oppressed, obsessed or possessed.”
In many cases, afflicted individuals need only return to practicing their faith through prayers and sacraments. In more difficult situations, the demon begins operating from the inside, preying on a victim’s unrepentant sin and influencing them to justify their actions due to a sense of victimhood, Clement explained.
Once a person embraces these ideas, they establish a deeper psychological compatibility with the demonic, he noted.
“The demon then has access to the interior, and he begins an interior dialog,” he said. “Kind of a running commentary.”
At this point, exorcists watch for psychological reactions to certain prayers, including personality changes.
REFUTING SKEPTICS
For those who are skeptical about the reality of demons or their influence on human beings, Clement points to empirical data and his many first-hand experiences.
“At the very least it is a psychological reality for the person who is going through this,” he said. “This methodology and the prayers of the church bring about a cessation in what many think is a diabolical affliction.”
He’s also witnessed too many first-hand phenomena to discredit the reality of spiritual attacks.
“Just explain that to me: what is the psychological phenomenon whereby someone levitates? What is the psychological phenomenon whereby someone changes form – shape shifts?” he said. “What is the psychological phenomenon by which somebody knows and speaks a language that they’ve never heard in their life? Something’s going on.”
Whatever one calls this, Clement emphasized that vulnerability to these afflictions comes from a spiritual wound.
“That can be everything from an ongoing, habitual mortal sin to a lack of willingness to forgive an abuser or betrayer,” he said. “Whatever that may be, there is going to be a psychological compatibility, a point of agreement. From there the demon builds the dialogue.”
MUCH LESS RESISTANCE
While exorcists may be reporting more diabolical attacks, Clement does not believe this stems from increased demonic activity.
“I think there is just much, much less resistance,” he said. “We as a society and as individuals are much more psychologically compatible with the demon because there is a loss of foundational virtue.”
Part of this has to do with a widespread modernist mentality, which encourages contemporary man to trust his emotions, desires and personal opinions over objective truth, Clement said.
“The modernist and the relativist rely on ambiguity and have made it an art form to say things in such a way as to elicit an emotional response, a false intellectual response,” he noted. “We are very disposed to hear what we want to hear, and we are extremely opinionated. This is how we get deceived.”
A devastating consequence of this can be a loss of one’s identity, Clement said.
Modern man’s confusion is only exacerbated by contemporary fascination with demons and aliens.
“One of the first lies that the demon floats is that you were born to the wrong people, the wrong time, the wrong ethnicity, the wrong gender, the wrong family,” he said. “Every one of those specifics was chosen directly by God. He chose your ethnicity; he chose your parents. He chose your gender.”
Rejecting these objective realities, which are bestowed on each created soul, is essentially a rejection of God, Clement added.
He emphasized that everyone is designed to glorify God and be an instrument of salvation for others in the specific time, place, circumstances and body they were given.
“When you reject that identity. In that moment, you become anti-Christ,” Clement said. “You become anti-God.”
Modern man’s confusion is only exacerbated by contemporary fascination with demons and aliens. This includes numerous movies and popular entertainment that tends to glorify the grotesque while downplaying the reality of Christ and the saints, he said.
“The demon gets the attention,” Clement said. “We have people who label themselves demonologists. There is a fascination with the diabolical. It’s like a fascination with a freak show at the circus. That’s morbid. There’s nothing virtuous about that – to be fascinated with the machinations of a fallen creature – a damned creature. What end does this serve?”
Likewise, growing preoccupation with aliens can serve as fertile ground for diabolical attacks, Clement warned.
“Every time that we’ve encountered something that presented itself as an alien, it responded to prayers of exorcism in the same way that a demon responds,” he said. “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck – I’ve got an old cowboy mentality. You can dress up a pig, but it’s still a pig.”
Even if there were genuine extraterrestrials, Clement said they would be creatures that follow the rules of God’s creation.
“People get obsessed with the novelty. They want to encounter the extraordinary, but God is in the ordinary. He’s right here,” he noted. “So, when something presents itself as an alien to an individual, what is the psychological compatibility? It may be a fascination with demons and diminution of God, a diminution of the church. Whatever this may be, the demon is proud and happy to take alien form if that’s what it takes to entice this particular human.”
Scripture even warns that demons can masquerade as an angel of light, Clement explained.
“This is why the church has always taught: just reject all this mystical phenomenon,” he said. “If it responds to prayer, it’ll respond to prayer in one of two ways, either with an aversion or an affinity. Then, you’ve got your answer.”
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence is another area to be on guard against, Clement warned, as it can become an extension of the multi-media platforms in which the diabolical gains access to a person’s thoughts.
“Ultimately, you look at what’s being counterfeited, which is generational wisdom, the counsel of a spiritual director, the counsel of a priest,” he said. “We’re going to other sources to receive ‘council.’ The demon is going to be all over that. It doesn’t matter how you come to him. He just wants you to come to him, and he’s willing to be whatever saint, whatever voice, whatever oracle you want. He just wants in your ear and in your head.”
OPPORTUNITY FOR REDEMPTION
At the end of the day, Clement said diabolical attack represents an opportunity for the afflicted soul to access divine grace, to reject sin and return to God.
“It’s a movement within the economy of salvation,” he said.
He likened a demonic affliction to an opportunity, not an attack. Much like someone who suffers from a physical ailment caused by a weakness in the body, God can transform this suffering into one’s ultimate redemption.
“For 20 centuries in the church, a long and lingering illness was seen as a form of blessing because through that suffering a person can unite their suffering to God and is given the grace to go through a tremendous amount in reparation for their family, themselves and others,” Clement said. “For a Catholic, the definition of healing is being reconciled to God.”
