Father Vincent Lampert leads worshippers at St. Michael Catholic Church in Brookville in southeastern Indiana.
He said he’s performed exorcisms for almost 20 years, but now, someone has been pretending to be him for more than a year and offering exorcisms, rosaries, and holy water for money.
”Unfortunately, a lot of people who believe they are dealing with the demonic are very vulnerable,” he said. “They took a recent interview that I did and dubbed over my voice with AI so they were able to add their own words with my actual image.”
The priest has been in the public eye because of his decades of experience as an exorcist.
His secretary found a Facebook page where someone pretending to be him offered exorcisms and holy items for hundreds of dollars.
However, he’s not even on social media and said he communicates with parishioners via email.
“I had a gentleman in Germany tell me that the person got him to pay them two thousand dollars thinking I was flying to Germany to do an exorcism for him. I’ve had people show up here for appointments, people I did not know. But this person actually got people to give him up to $300 for an appointment.”
The church does not charge for exorcisms, he noted.
“It’s considered to be a ministry of charity so the church would help anyone. That should send up a red flag to anybody.”
Father Vincent said the Facebook page that his secretary found purporting to be him blocked her and then a post appeared on it about fake conferences to get money from people.
He said he has the following message for whoever is pretending to be him:
“You can fool people in this life but you ultimately have to give an account before God one day. Because if you’re genuinely wanting to help somebody, you’re going to put a price tag on that.”
Father Vincent says he’s spoken with law enforcement, but there is no active case right now.
He said the person he believes is pretending to be him could be anywhere.