Catholic Church

Did Pope Francis declare Lucifer as God? No, that's not true: The video being shared to make the claim relied on a poor translation of Latin and has been taken entirely out of context. "Lucifer" in Latin means "morning star," "Venus," or "light-bringing." While it's become synonymous today with Satan, the term was used in Christian tradition as a name…

Did freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say Christianity should be ignored as "superstitious nonsense"? No, that's not true: the article comes from a liberal satire website and Ocasio-Cortez is Catholic. The claim originated from an article published by Taters Gonna Tate on January 3, 2020, titled "AOC Says Christianity Should Be Ignored As 'Superstitious Nonsense'" (archived here) which opened: Democrats are…

Did the Church of Sweden announce climate activist Greta Thunberg is the "successor" of Jesus Christ? No, that's not true: a single tweet by a local pastor in December 2018 made that controversial claim but he later apologized for it. The Church of Sweden (to which over half of Swedes belong) has issued no official statement making this claim at…

Did Pope Francis forgive a priest who raped 200 children and did this enable the priest to abuse more children? No, that's not true: the priest mentioned in the story died in 2005 and Francis only became Pope in 2013. The story offers no proof of the claim that Francis forgave the man. And even if he did: no matter…

Do Jeffrey Epstein's private jet flight logs list Joe Biden, John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Pope Francis, four CNN Anchors, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and two dozen other well-known political leaders as passengers on the accused sex trafficker's "Lolita Express?" No, that's not true: The list that has spread on social media is fake, with the exception of…

Did U.S. Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar praise the destruction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame? No, that's not true: It is a satirical story produced by a well-known hoax and satire publisher. The quotes from these members of congress are fake. The story originated from an article published on April 16, 2019 titled "Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar Praised the…

Did Pope Francis compare Christians to a fungus during an address in Morocco? No, that's not true: The speech quoted in misleading stories included the pope quoting a biblical passage in which Jesus responds to a question about the nature of the Kingdom of God by saying "It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three…

Did the Catholic Church announce that it was introducing burkas for altar servers? No, it is a satirical report published by a California website that specializes in social commentary through satire. The claim that the church is planning to add an 11th commandment to the previous 10 handed down by God to Moses is also satire. That commandment purportedly would…

Did Pope Francis declare masturbation is no longer a sin for followers of the Catholic Church? No, that's not true: the quote was made up by a Spanish website with a well hidden satire disclaimer and it later translated the story for its English language version. The story went viral via an article published on February 17, 2019 by There…

Was billionaire and philantropist George Soros arrested in Saint Margrethenberg, Switzerland at 13:23 GMT on Feb. 3 2019 because of evidence supplied by Barack Obama who has been incarcerated at Gitmo because he was charged with treason? No, all reports making that claim are based on a single story by an author with a long history of publishing untrue conspiracy…