Did Donald Trump post on Truth Social that he has access to "the Vatican files", boasting he could "bring down the Papacy, the Vatican and the entire Catholic Church overnight"? No, that's not true: This is a fake post that never appeared on Truth Social. A search of Google News showed no reporting about this post being made or deleted.…
Did President Donald Trump post on social media saying he gave Pope Leo XIV his job and that he ordered acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to investigate the Catholic Church? No, that's not true: The fake screenshot with a blue verification badge was made to look like a post from @realDonaldTrump on the X platform -- but Trump has not…
Does a viral video show authentic clips of four "Evangelical" pastors preaching against conservative positions on the border wall, guns, abortion and oil drilling? No, that's not true: The clips are lifted from an online account that describes itself as "Using AI to show a parallel universe." None of the quotes from the sermons in the video were found in…
Does a viral social media chart correctly represent the portion of the transgender population that had committed a mass shooting or the share of mass shootings according to gender identification between 2015 and 2025? No, that's not true: The charts supply no source for those numbers. Organizations that professionally track mass shootings using police records and public information had not,…
Is Clifford Thomas Phillips Jr. the suspect in the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: The shooter has been identified by law enforcement officials as Robin Westman. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The name Clifford Thomas Phillips Jr. was already circulating on social media before the shooting in Minneapolis happened. In social media…
ROME - That puff of white from atop the Sistine Chapel has long been a starting gun for conspiracists. With a new character in the story, they proclaim they alone tell the truth about dark forces playing pontifical puppeteers. These stories humans tell to make simple sense of complex events move ever faster, now that there's money to be made…
Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago native, was chosen as successor to Pope Francis. Prevost, who becomes the first American to lead the Roman Catholic Church, has chosen the name Leo XIV. (Source: Lead Stories' screenshot of Vatican TV) Prevost's earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Villanova University in 1977, and a Master of Divinity from Catholic Theological Union…
The conclave to elect Pope Francis' successor is set to start on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. It is a centuries-old ceremony entrenched in secrecy and powerful rituals, which strikes the world's imagination. This year, 135 cardinals from 71 countries across the five continents (of which Pope Francis has appointed 108, and 12 come from countries that never had a cardinal…
Did Pope Francis' dog "refuse to leave his grave"? No, that's not true: None of the variations of the internet rumor support that by links to credible news reports or authentic footage or photographs from the papal funeral, which was covered in detail by multiple journalistic organizations. There is no evidence that the late pontiff kept any pets during his…
By Raffaella Menichini, Lead Stories Deputy International Teams Manager (Rome) and Lead Stories staff A nine-day mourning period has begun with the death of Pope Francis, who died on Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88, according to a statement released by the Holy See Press Office. The cause of death, declared by the Vatican's Directorate of Health…
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