Do two photos of Pope Francis posted side-by-side in an X post the day he was admitted to the hospital for bronchitis show two different people, implying he has a body-double? No, that's not true: The photos of the Pope in the post were taken ten years apart. The photo on the left -- showing a younger, healthier Pope Francis -- was taken in 2014, while the photo on the right was taken in 2024.
The claim originated in a post (archived here) on X published on February 14, 2025. It read:
Pope Francis is admitted to hospital for Bronchitis - I wonder which one went.
This is what the post looked like:
(Source: screenshot taken by Lead Stories on February 15, 2025 at 10:54:31 UTC)
The photo in the image on the right of the post is a popular picture of Pope Francis in online posts and articles and it was taken in 2014 (archived here). The photo of the Pope was taken at Haemi Fortress in Chungcheongnam-do, South Chungcheong Province, during the closing Mass for Asian Youth Day on August 17, 2014. It is an image that can be found in WikiCommons, and it is credited to the Korean Culture and Information Service.
At the time it first appeared, the photo was described as a "2014 Pastoral Visit of Pope Francis to Korea."
The photo in the image on the left of the X post shows Pope Francis during an audience when it was taken in 2024 (archived here). The Pope has been in poor health in recent years. He was admitted to the hospital on February 14, 2025, for a respiratory infection, according to the Vatican (archived here).
The same side-by-side images of the Pope have been previously used in unrelated social media posts here (archived here) and here (archived here).
He appeared bloated and pale during the handful of audiences he held before going to the hospital. The bloating appeared to indicate that the medication he was taking to help treat the lung infection was making him retain water, The Associated Press reported (archived here).
He has been hospitalized four times since he became Pope. His last hospitalization in February 2024 was related to respiratory issues, according to Vatican news archives. He also was hospitalized in 2023 for bronchitis, and in 2021 when he had a portion of his intestine removed.
In 1957, Francis underwent a partial lobectomy after suffering a severe respiratory infection.
