- On the first game, he has a golden cross. On chapter 2, silver. On chapter 3, copper.
- John says it outright during chapter 2.
- John’s golden cross is expensive in the natural sense, but as he deals with the supernatural, it turns silver. Silver in mythology often has purifying properties. Finally, it doesn’t turn bronze, but wood, just like Jesus’ cross. Both wood crosses were carried at the hardest moments, yet their carriers accomplished their missions.
- It's inevitable.
- Jossed. You confront Malphas in the Golden Ending route's climax but he is just as vulnerable to John's cross as any other enemy.
- Confirmed. In the final stretch of Chapter III you discover a small shack, and inside is a letter from Gary to Jakob, the main antagonist of DUSK. Once you read the letter and leave the shack you encounter The Horror, one of the enemies from the same game.
- One of the extra files in the game's folder hints to that possibility.
Father Allred was an ordained minister, but one who was very much into hellfire-and-brimstone, Satan's behind every bad part of society style proselytizing. The Catholic Church (Well aware that most 'demonic possessions' are untreated mental illnesses, and most 'demonic activities' are just humans being awful) had put him on probation, but he continued unabated. John Ward was a member of his parish, and one who began to assist Allred more and more as John fell into his delusions. To the point when Allred did go to preform an exorcism, he 'ordained' John Ward, seeing him as one of the few truly aware of the 'evils' plaguing society, and thus a good person to be a priest to chase away the evil.
Naturally, everything goes to (proverbial) hell, and both Ward and Amy are committed. Ward seemingly makes great progress in understanding the truth, and is released. But, sadly, he quickly relapses, and begins imagining himself as a priest battling an evil cult and demonic forces.
Ward ended up recommitted. In part 3, getting touched by the third secret boss results in a small segment where Ward is in a straitjacket in a padded cell, before trying to escape the demon. This is a quick moment of lucidity where John is back in his padded cell before falling again to the demonic visions of him as a priest fighting an evil cult.
- Made significantly less likely by the Lisa variant of the Golden Ending, where after exorcizing Amy John puts down his cross and goes on to live a normal life with Lisa, rejecting Garcia's plea to continue fighting the UNSPEAKABLE's forces across the country. Were the game's events all hallucinations which existed solely to elevate John into a Priest fighting evil cultists and demons, such an ending would likely never happen at all - and if it did, it would be one where the truth was revealed; which it isn't - Garcia is immediately present and Lisa never infers John is hallucinating him or his suggestion to continue fighting the forces of evil.
- The Garcia character in general also makes this interpretation far more suspect, as he is the sole character other than John who is playable (even if only briefly), and is the one actually hunting Michael Davies in Chapter 1, sharing the same sprite as the man behind the shack, and if you kill said man, Michael kills you and the game ends after John's death with one of Garcia's pleas to the Catholic Church as the note rather than anything relating to the Martin Family case. As well, when warded away, Michael will sometimes drop another note depicting Garcia's pleas to the church. While it is possible Garcia may be another hallucination under this theory, it is far less likely as unlike every other character outside the Cult, no notes exist in the game which provide any supposed context to his activities and Michael's presence.
