In Portugal, an exorcist says he chases demons and challenges the Church

A priest places his hands on the forehead of a woman, who drops to the ground, cries, struggles, as if in a trance: near the famous Portuguese Catholic sanctuary of Fatima, so-called "exorcism" rituals attract dozens of people, to the great dismay of the church.

Scenes like this take place once a month in this room located in the basement of a shopping center in the center of the country.

That Saturday, more than a hundred people participated in this "exorcist retreat" organized by the "Prelature of Saints Peter and Paul", a structure founded in 2006 from which the Catholic Church stood out, in Rome as in Fatima.

At the most awaited moment, the faithful get up from their chairs one after the other and walk up to Francisco Marques, a young man of 27, quite tall, with a pale face and red hair, dressed in a black cassock and a Roman collar.

- "Casting out demons" -

When their turn arrives, he places both hands on their foreheads with a concentrated look.

Some, mostly women, then let themselves fall back, into the arms of one or two people already ready to support them and lay them down on the carpet placed in front of the altar.

"It's a great peace that we find. It's a liberation. I'm leaving here after a cleaning, with a light soul", testifies after this experience Lurdes Ramésio, a 56-year-old nurse. “I feel that there is power there. These hands transmit power in me,” she says.

The sessions are organized by Francisco Marques and his family, with the participation of an Italian, Salvatore Micalef, who presents himself as his bishop. “In Francisco, I noticed above all that he had the gift of casting out demons. (...) I therefore promulgated a decree according to which he can be an exorcist,” the latter tells AFP.

Their initiative met with some success, but it was strongly condemned by the Church itself.

The ritual of exorcism does exist in the Catholic religion, but the Church treats this subject "with great caution" in order to avoid its priests projecting an image comparable to that of "a guru who would have power over demons", reminds AFP José Ornelas, the bishop of Leiria-Fatima.

Already three years ago, the Leiria-Fatima diocese published a press release to warn against these “suspicious retreats”, organized by “an alleged seminarian friend of the Pope” and “a bishop who presents himself as an exorcist of the Vatican”.

- "Persecuted" -

Mgr Ornelas explains to AFP that the Church does not have the power to prohibit these practices, but that it had to denounce "an abuse" committed by people who could "exploit" the suffering of others "for their own benefit".

Francisco Marques, who for his part considers himself "persecuted" by the church, took legal action by filing a complaint for defamation.

"We have been slandered. We