When Rev. Jesús Romero arrived at the funeral of Dahina Loaiza in Mexico City in December 2024, her sister Roberta Loaiza sensed something was off.

Wearing a cardinal’s cap and Ferragamo shoes, Romero skipped over the Catholic liturgy and granted general absolution to dozens of mourners, a rite the Church reserves for exceptional circumstances such as imminent danger of death.

“It seemed beautiful. He won all of us over. He told all of us that we were practically going straight to heaven,” Loaiza told Reuters.

Elena D'Acosta, a devout Catholic and family friend who had assisted Romero during the ceremony, was so alarmed that she contacted the Archdiocese of Mexico City.

Three months later, Bishop Salvador Gonzalez issued a press release warning that Romero was impersonating a priest and that no diocese in Mexico had any record of him.

The discovery was painful for the Loaizas, who had paid Gayosso, one of Mexico’s biggest funeral providers, for Romero to conduct the service.

Romero could not be reached for comment.

Gustavo Torres, the commercial manager for Gayosso, said the company has no formal system for verifying clergy and was unaware of the allegations until approached by Reuters.

The company apologized, and Torres said it would investigate.

Mexico is grappling with a growing number of unauthorized clergy, offering funeral Masses, baptisms, First Communions, weddings and patron-saint celebrations, according to Reuters interviews with officials in nine of the country’s archdioceses.

The damage goes beyond money: the Catholic Church does not recognize sacraments by what it calls “fake priests,” so families may have to repeat them.

With more than 120 million Catholics, according to Vatican data, Mexico has the world’s second-largest Catholic population after Brazil. Faith permeates daily life and national identity.

Dioceses elsewhere in Latin America are also warning about impostors performing religious services or soliciting donations, ahead of Pope Leo's visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru next month.

Church authorities say there have long been isolated cases of people posing as priests. But seven Mexican dioceses said the frauds have spread since the COVID-19 pandemic as families scrambled to find priests to pray for sick relatives and conduct funeral rites.

“We must be very vigilant about these situations because the people who suffer the consequences are the faithful,” said Maria Magdalena de Ibarrola, the chancellor, or record-keeper, of the Archdiocese of Mexico, the country’s largest. She estimates hundreds of fake priests are operating in Mexico.

Researchers and church officials blame a shortage of priests and a widening gap between cultural Catholicism and the institutional church.

Mexico has 17,331 priests, according to Vatican data, or one for nearly 7,000 Catholics. That’s more than three times as many Catholics per priest as in Europe, which has one for every 1,882.

Social media has moved into that gap. Facebook Marketplace is full of ads for "express religious services" that rarely mention the Church does not recognize the providers. Religious certificates sell for $30 to $100.

Reuters contacted five sellers on Facebook Marketplace in Mexico. All offered “original” certificates for baptisms, First Communions and Confirmations that they said came from parishes.

Three of the parishes said they don’t provide documents through Facebook Marketplace. A fourth parish doesn’t exist. The fifth seller claimed to be linked to a parish but wouldn’t identify it.

For parishioners, the line between the Catholic Church, impostor priests and breakaway churches can be hard to see.

José Tomás Sierra, known as Father Chema, said he started his studies at the Catholic seminary in Toluca at 14, left due to personal reasons, and then returned years later. The seminary said its records show Sierra attended for one year and did not return.

Calling the seminary a "bad experience," Sierra said he pursued the priesthood on his own, building a church, the Parish of Mercy, on Toluca’s outskirts in 2009 and growing a congregation.

Jonás Jaime Pedraza, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toluca, said church records show Sierra sought to join the Order of Mercy in 2010. A year later, Pedraza said, the archdiocese began receiving reports about a priest celebrating Mass in the town of San Buenaventura and alerted local parishioners that Sierra was not affiliated with the Catholic Church.

In 2019, Sierra said he became a priest in the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, which does not recognize the pope’s authority and allows clergy to marry.

With a neatly trimmed beard, tattooed eyebrows and a penchant for profanity, Sierra cuts an unconventional figure for a priest.

Sierra’s church in Toluca is where Paloma Peña’s daughter received her First Communion in August 2025.

Peña, a mother of two, had heard from a neighbor about a religious instructor who could prepare children for communion in six months. The Archdiocese of Toluca typically requires three years.

When the day for the First Communion arrived, the priest introduced himself as a monsignor and gave sacraments to around 40 children, Pena said.

The certificate had the wrong date. But Pena said she did not learn of the extent of the fraud until May when a priest from Mexico City, Rev. Manuel Sanchez Padilla, said his parish had been listed on the document without his knowledge. The certificate also bore the signature of a priest who had died in 2020, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

Sierra acknowledged the deception but denied involvement. He said he had lent his church to a colleague from the Brazilian Apostolic Church and blamed the religious instructor.

For Sanchez, the case was part of a wider pattern. Since he took over his parish in 2025, he said he has uncovered a string of fake certificates issued in the name of priests who previously served there.

His parish now uses embossed seals and has digitized records back to the 1980s.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

The family thought he was a priest. Mexico’s Catholic Church says he was an impostor

VIDEO SHOWS: SOUNDBITES FROM CHANCELLOR OF THE ARCHIDIOCESE OF MEXICO, PEOPLE AFFECTED BY FAKE PRIESTS, PRIEST / CHURCHES

SHOWS: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (OCTOBER 8, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. FATHER MANUEL SANCHEZ, PRIEST IN CHARGE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT RECTORY OPENING THE DOORS OF THE CHURCH

2. (MUTE) DRONE SHOT OF SANCHEZ WALKING BETWEEN PEWS

3. (MUTE) DRONE SHOT OF SANCHEZ GENUFLECTING IN FRONT OF THE ALTAR

4. VARIOUS OF SANCHEZ INSIDE THE CHURCH’S OFFICE GRABBING A BINDER OF FAKE DOCUMENTS

5. VARIOUS OF SANCHEZ USING COMPUTER

6. PLAQUE IN MEMORY OF FORMER PRIEST IN CHARGE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT RECTORY, JAVIER ANGEL CUITLAHUAC FERNANDEZ JACINTO, WHO PASSED AWAY IN 2020

7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRIEST, MANUEL SÁNCHEZ, SAYING: (SOUNDBITE RUNS OVER SHOT OF SANCHEZ SHOWING FAKE DOCUMENT)

“Here’s the signature of Father Cuitláhuac, who was rector only until 2020, and is supposedly signing a document from 2025.”

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (OCTOBER 4, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

8. EDUCATIONAL AND FINANCIAL CONSULTOR, ROBERTA LOAIZA, WALKING TOWARDS A COFFEE TABLE

9. VARIOUS OF LOAIZA SHOWING PICTURES OF HER DECEASED SISTER, DAHINA LOAIZA, WHO PASSED AWAY IN 2024

10. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) EDUCATIONAL AND FINANCIAL CONSULTOR, ROBERTA LOAIZA, SAYING:

“Well, it was my sister’s funeral, and at Gayosso (REFERRING TO: funerary home) they asked me whether I wanted a Mass. I said yes, so they brought in a priest. The priest arrived, and a very close friend of ours is a Eucharistic minister. She offered to help the priest, and so we were there during the Mass when we suddenly started noticing strange things."

11. PHOTOGRAPH OF DAHINA LOAIZA

12. DAHINA LOAIZA’S FUNERARY URN

13. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) EDUCATIONAL AND FINANCIAL CONSULTOR, ROBERTA LOAIZA, SAYING:

“Everyone told me, ‘What a beautiful Mass, how lovely,’ and things like that. And yes, it seemed beautiful. He (REFERRING TO: fake priest) won all of us over. He told all of us that we were practically going straight to heaven. But then Elena (REFERRING TO: friend who served as Eucharistic minister) started looking into it. She made some inquiries and, well, I don’t know exactly what the archdiocesan office is called, the one connected to the Basilica, but they issued a statement saying that this priest had been going around celebrating fake Masses, well, he was a fake priest."

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 18, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

14. PEOPLE ENTERING AND EXITING FROM THE ARCHIDIOCESE OF MEXICO

15. CHANCELLOR OF THE ARCHIDIOCESE OF MEXICO, MARIA MAGDALENA IBARROLA GRABBING A BINDER FROM HER ARCHIVE

16. IBARROLA SHOWING BINDER READING (Spanish): “NOTIFICATIONS AND NOTICES ABOUT FAKE CLERGY 1956”

17. NOTICE FROM 1995 READING (Spanish): “FAKE PRIESTS”

18. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CHANCELLOR OF THE ARCHIDIOCESE OF MEXICO, MARIA MAGDALENA IBARROLA, SAYING:

“‘Fake priests,’ as we call them, are individuals who are not affiliated with the Church and who act on their own. They do not have permission to celebrate the sacraments. The Church, and the bishops, keep a very close watch on them. We must be very vigilant about these situations because the people who suffer the consequences are the faithful. When believers go to request a sacrament, they do so with sincere intentions and in good faith, saying, ‘I want to receive God’s grace,’ because they have faith, they know the teachings of the Church, and they understand what the sacraments are. It is very sad when they go to someone who, perhaps by making some process easier for them, leads them to believe they are receiving a sacrament, only for it to turn out that the sacrament is not valid.”

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (OCTOBER 3, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

19. JESUS CHRIST FIGURINE / PRIEST, ADRIAN HUERTA, IN CHARGE OF THREE CHURCHES IN MEXICO CITY’S CENTER GIVING BLESSING TO PEOPLE

20. VARIOUS OF HUERTA BLESSING PEOPLE

21. MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS, FIGURING INSIDE CHURCH

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 18, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

22. (SOUNBITE) (Spanish) CHANCELLOR OF THE ARCHIDIOCESE OF MEXICO, MARIA MAGDALENA IBARROLA, SAYING:

“Well, they exist because there are actually very few priests. Here at the Chancery, we are also responsible for keeping the records of all the priests who work in the diocese, those who are authorized to work in the diocese, whether they are members of religious orders or diocesan priests. But there are not many of them. We know there is a vocations crisis, as there is everywhere. It's a crisis of commitment."

SAN BUENAVENTURA, STATE OF MEXICO, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 4, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

23. PRIEST FROM THE BRAZILIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH, JOSE TOMAS SIERRA, COMING OUT OF PARISH OF MERCY, WHICH HE CONSTRUCTED

24. SIERRA BLESSING A MOTORCYCLE

25. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRIEST FROM THE BRAZILIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH, JOSE TOMAS SIERRA, SAYING:

“It makes me laugh because sometimes people say, ‘No, he’s not (a priest),’ but where’s the proof? Someone can say something, someone else something else, but where’s the proof? What makes you a priest? I mean, who gives you legitimacy? A man? I don’t think so. Apostolic succession, as the name suggests, comes directly from the Apostles through to the bishops.

26. FIGURINES INSIDE PARISH OF MERCY

27. SIERRA LIGHTING CANDLE ON

"There’s the example of Father Adam Kotas (REFERRING TO: former Catholic priest) and some other priests who were removed, but they do not stop being priests. Why? Because the anointing is in their hands. In other words, it cannot be erased. It is like your baptism, it cannot be erased. But the Church, unfortunately, is bureaucracy, diplomacy, and a mafia.”

METEPEC, STATE OF MEXICO, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 4, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

28. HOUSEWIFE, PALOMA PENA, WALKING DOWN STAIRS AT THE JOHN THE BAPTIST EX CONVENT CARRYING HER DAUGHTER’S FIRST COMMUNION DRESS

29. DRESS HANGING ON BENCH

30. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HOUSEWIFE, PALOMA PENA, SAYING:

“Look, once I spoke with the priest I contacted in May, he told me that because the sacraments that had been performed (REFERRING TO: her daughter's first communion) were not valid, they would have to be done again. And I thought, ‘well, now I have to start all over anyway,’ because it makes me anxious, it upsets me to think that my daughter has been attending church and receiving Communion, and then, when the time comes, to have to tell her it wasn’t valid. I mean, it feels like you're playing with the innocence of children."

31. FIRST COMMUNION DRESS

32. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HOUSEWIFE, PALOMA PENA, SAYING:

"So I said to myself that I wasn’t going to just sit back and do nothing. I’m now looking into the possibility of doing the sacraments again, this time through the proper channels.”

33. (MUTE) VARIOUS DRONE SHOTS OF PENA WALKING TOWARDS METEPEC ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH CHURCH

34. PENA MAKING THE SIGN OF THE CROSS AT CHURCH