On the face of it, it was simply a goofy prank, or as the archdiocese called it, a “farce.”

Inappropriate, yes; but hardly earth-shattering.

As a Catholic news source called The Pillar reported, “A group of seminarians studying at Denver’s Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary were taken on the trip in January 2024 by then-vice rector of the seminary, Father John Nepil, during which they were woken in the middle of the night and invited individually to swear a ‘blood oath’ in a ceremony involving a dagger and a man in a yeti costume.

“During the bizarre ceremony, video of which was sent to The Pillar by multiple sources in the archdiocese, seminarians were told to scream as if in pain before returning with a bloodied cloth wrapped around their hand and their mouths taped shut, to a room where others waited for their turn to be brought in.”

While farcical, the archdiocese nonetheless removed the priest from a leadership role at the seminary, calling it “inappropriate.”

But was it more than that? Was it not emblematic of the state of some modern seminaries, where goofing around seems to trump devotion?

More importantly, does it not show how out of touch the modern Church—or at least many in it—is with the supernatural realm?

Now, there is good news when it comes to seminaries. As reported recently by a Catholic newspaper, “Some seminaries remain to be reformed, but … by a considerable majority, U.S. seminaries are in the best shape they’ve been for decades, and possibly ever,” said George Weigel, a prominent Catholic author and distinguished fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Weigel, a frequent speaker at American seminaries, says he has noticed “a level of seminarian maturity and faculty engagement in formation that would have been startling 40 years ago—perhaps even 25 years ago.”

Okay. But the phrase to deploy in the yeti case is “tone deaf” (or, if in a mean mood, “clueless”).

For in that realm, “yetis,” “bigfoot,” and the “abominable snowmen” are often associated with the darkness of the occult, frequently spotted at old Indian mound sites, areas of witchcraft, and locales known for “hauntings,” “flying saucers,” or New Age.

Go to Oregon or the state of Washington to see the links.

Or a place like Sutton, West Virginia, where there are (count them) two museums dedicated to what paranormalists call “cryptids” within five hundred feet of each other.

One focuses on Bigfoot, the other on what locals call the “Flatwood monster” (a strange otherworldly entity witnessed by a group of kids and a mom in association with a UFO). Demons come in many guises (and in accordance with beliefs and culture).

Nearby is also a New Age shop in this truly dilapidated town, which for sure has seen better days.

The same association–between strange creatures, “UFOs,” and the occult/psychic/New Age can be seen in Sedona, Arizona, in New Mexico on the massive Navajo reservation, along old Route 666 in New Mexico and Colorado; Mount Rainier, Washington; Crestone, Colorado; or what they call the Bridgewater Triangle, a roughly two-hundred-square-mile area in southeastern Massachusetts renowned for its ghostly apparitions, occult practices, “flying saucers,” and cryptids (giant thunderbirds, devil dogs, and other strange phenomena).

Is it a coincidence that Aleister Crowley, the most notorious black magician in recent centuries, lived in a cottage along Loch Ness and claimed he could summon the lake monster? (His cottage was built on the burnt ruins of an old church and also the site of a graveyard. Later it fell into the hands of a “Led Zeppelin” musician, who, after a taste of intense haunting, got rid of it.)

Some researchers believe these places are vortices or portals of supernatural activity, opened by occult activity of whatever kind.

Near Niagara Falls, Bigfoot is reported at an Indian mound near Artpark along the famous river. 

It isn’t just goofy tales. It speaks of the demonic. The reports of these kinds are in the hundreds of thousands.

So goofing around seminarians dressed as bigfoot is tantamount to dressing as a devil or witch. If our young candidates for the priesthood (as well as average Mass-goers) were better informed about the dangers of the occult—if they were schooled in the actuality of the supernatural, good and evil, and deliverance—we’d all be better served.

The Catholic Church needs to return to its supernatural (as opposed to just theological) roots.

Sound too tough?

Maybe. Everyone likes a good laugh. But that should come after making sure nothing strange is invoked or touched or dismissed as a joke and discerned after true priestly formation.

[send this to your pastor or bishop]

[resources: Lying Wonders, Strangest Things]