FATIMA, Portugal (AFP) — A woman closes her eyes as a young man dressed as a priest places both hands on her forehead. Moments later, she falls to the floor in front of dozens of worshippers.

The scene unfolds not in a church but in the basement of a small shopping center a short walk from the vast esplanade of Portugal’s Fatima shrine, one of the Catholic Church’s most visited pilgrimage sites.

The gathering was part of a series of monthly so-called “exorcism retreats” held in Fatima that have raised concerns among Catholic authorities, who say they operate outside official Church oversight by self-styled religious figures and risk exploiting vulnerable believers.

On a recent Saturday, more than 100 people waited for the moment when Francisco Marques, 27, would start laying his hands on participants one by one.

Wearing a black cassock and a Roman collar, Marques cuts the figure of a traditional Catholic cleric.

But neither the Vatican nor local Church authorities recognize his ministry, which was founded in 2006.

Marques placed both hands on their foreheads, concentrating silently.

Some participants — mostly women — immediately fall backwards into the arms of attendants standing ready behind them before being lowered onto mats spread across the floor.

“You get a great feeling of peace. It’s a liberation. I leave here cleansed, with a lighter soul,” Lurdes Ramisio, a 56-year-old nurse, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the retreat.

“I feel he has a power. His hands transmit a power to me,” she added.

‘Driving out demons’

The sessions are organized by Marques and members of his family with the support of Salvatore Micalef, an Italian who presents himself as his bishop.

“When I met Francisco, I saw above all that he had the gift of driving out demons,” Micalef told AFP. “I therefore issued a decree authorizing him to be an exorcist.”

Exorcism is the ancient practice of driving out demons or evil spirits from a person or place they are thought to possess.

It is practised by some Roman Catholics but treated with deep skepticism by others.

While exorcism is an officially recognized practice within Catholicism, it is governed by strict rules and reserved for specially authorized priests.

Church officials say cases of alleged demonic possession are approached with caution and often involve consultation with medical experts to ensure people with illnesses such as epilepsy do not miss out on medical treatment if their symptoms are wrongly ascribed to the supernatural.

Bishop Jose Ornelas of Leiria-Fatima told AFP the Church treats the subject “with great prudence” to avoid creating the impression that priests are “gurus” with special powers over demons.

In 2023, his diocese warned against what it called “suspicious retreats” organized by “a supposed seminarian friend of the pope.”