Catholic Church

Did Pope Benedict ask President Joe Biden not to attend his funeral? No, that's not true: According to a Vatican spokesperson, the wish of the retired head of the Catholic Church was to have a simple ceremony, and there is no evidence that Pope Benedict specifically excluded the U.S. president from the list of attendees. The White House told Lead…

Does a photograph on social media show a young Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, doing the Nazi salute? No, that's not true: The photo is cropped. The original photograph shows Ratzinger with both arms raised; not just his right one. The cropped image was included in a tweet (archived here) published on December 31, 2022, the date…

Did Pope Francis write an inspirational quote that begins, "Rivers do not drink their own water"? No, that's not true: A Vatican spokeswoman told Lead Stories the quote was not authentic. The same quote is attributed to other spiritual leaders, and scholars say the quote probably has roots in an old Sanskrit proverb. The claim appeared in an Instagram post…

Are Pope Francis, the late Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President Joe Biden members of the same family? No, that's not true: There is no evidence supporting this online rumor, which recycles a 24-year-old conspiracy theory. The claim appeared in a post on Instagram on October 14, 2022. The caption says: I KNOW SOME WEIRD SHIT WHEN I SEE SOME…

Is the sun smaller than the Earth, and does it rotate around the Earth? No, that's not true: For centuries, scientists have shown that everything in our solar system, including the Earth, revolves around the sun, which is more than 100 times larger than the Earth. The claim that the Earth dominates the sun appeared in an Instagram post on…

Does an image of Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva show Brazil's former leader holding a statuette of the pagan deity Baphomet? No, that's not true: The photograph has been digitally manipulated to place the figure in his hands. Written in French, the claim was posted on Twitter on October 7, 2022, along with the photograph of a…

Did a video posted to Facebook in September 2022 show the body of the late Queen Elizabeth II being placed into a coffin? No, that's not true: The video in question was originally posted to social media more than three weeks prior to the queen's September 8, 2022, death. While the post does not make the claim outright, its timing…

Was a debt jubilee, the cancellation of a broad range of debts from the public record, "officially declared" after Queen Elizabeth II's death? No, that's not true: At the time of writing, no such announcement has been made. The man who posted the rumor online was promoting his online store selling precious metals. The claim appeared in a Facebook post…

Does a video on social media in August 2022 show an act of aggression against a French priest? No, that's not true: The clip shows a 2020 incident in Guyana. Some of this claim's variations had such hashtags as "diversity," "multiculturalism" and "openborders," implying that the attacker could be an immigrant. According to previous media reports, it is not the…

Is Bill Gates the "first man to bring computers into this world," and is he worth "trillions and trillions"? No, that's not true: A social media video post purporting to be sharing "the truth about Bill Gates" makes those claim but offers no proof for them or any of the many other claims the narrator makes about Gates or various…