Did Pope Francis declare World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab a "more important" figure than Jesus Christ? No, that's not true: The People's Voice, the website originally making the claim, provided no sources proving the pope said this. The site has a long history of publishing fake or made up quotes and has a liability disclaimer that seeks to absolve the site of any responsibility for the reliability or accuracy of the information on it. No media outlets have reported on the quote.
The claim appeared in an article published by The People's Voice on October 13, 2023, titled "Pope Francis Declares Klaus Schwab Is 'More Important' Than Jesus Christ" (archived here) which opened:
The world has entered dark and stormy times, according to Pope Francis who says humanity must put its faith in World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab who is the man with the plan to restore nature to its position of primacy in the world order.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
(Source: The People's Voice screenshot taken on Mon Oct 16 15:28:58 2023 UTC)
The article does not describe or link to a speech or social media post where Pope Francis made this comment. The article is mostly comprised of poor evidence as to why Pope Francis allegedly saying Schwab is "more important" than Jesus would make sense, but does not actually give the readers proof that this was said by the pontiff. The evidence given is poor because it leads readers to other The People's Voice articles and not a primary source. For example, the line, "In 2017, Pope Francis called for a "one world government" and "political authority", arguing that the creation of the one world government is needed to combat issues such as "climate change," links to another The People's Voice article.
A Google News search for the phrase, "Pope Francis declares Klaus Schwab 'more important' than Jesus Christ" did not yield any relevant results from the thousands of reliable news site it indexes (archived here).
Lead Stories reached out to Pope Francis by way of The Holy See and will update this article if a relevant response is received.
A thumbnail image of a The People's Voice video shows an X, formerly Twitter, post from the Pope, claiming to say, "Klaus Schwab is the way, the truth, and the life. 🕯️"
(Source: The People's Voice screenshot taken on Mon Oct 16 15:48:11 2023 UTC)
While @Pontifex (archived here) is the pope's verified X account, the tweet seen in the thumbnail is fake. We did not find any evidence (archived here) that Pope Francis posted this statement.
The People's Voice
The People's Voice has a lengthy record of publishing false stories. It describes itself as a resource "comprised of various web pages operated by Fact Checked Limited," but it has nothing to do with fact checking.
As of this writing, its website contains a liability disclaimer, saying:
FACT CHECKED LIMITED AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND.
Other Lead Stories articles debunking The People's Voice claims are here.
Other Lead Stories articles related to Pope Francis are here.
