Did Pope Francis order the closure of the Vatican Secret Archives over a scandal revealed in the Epstein files in March 2026? No, that's not true: The post claimed Pope Francis ordered the sealing of the archives in March 2026, but he died in April 2025. There are no legitimate news reports of the Vatican sealing the archives as of publication date.
The claim appeared in a March 3, 2026, post on X account @maximumpain333 (archived here) . It opened:
THE VATICAN JUST SEALED ITS ARCHIVES. ASK YOURSELF WHY.
This is what the image in the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @maximumpain333 on X.)
The post opened with a purported timeline of how the Vatican Secret Archives were sealed:
March 2, 2026. 4:00 PM.
At 6:12 AM Rome time, Pope Francis ordered the immediate closure of the Vatican Secret Archives to all researchers, scholars, and diplomats.
No explanation. No timeline. No precedent in 400 years.
The last time the Vatican sealed its archives was 1633 -- when they buried the truth about Galileo.
Today, they're burying something far worse.
THE EPSTEIN-VATICAN WIRE
Pope Francis is not the Pope as of March 12, 2026. According to Vatican News (archived here), "Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta." Pope Leo was elected by the conclave on May 8, 2025, as Vatican News reported (archived here).
The Vatican "Secret Archive" was renamed The Vatican Apostolic Archive in 2019, as the The Guardian reported (archived here).
Had the Vatican sealed secret archives as the Epstein files were released, it would have been major international news. Lead Stories searched Google (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and found no legitimate news reports of the closure.
A reverse image search of the pope pictured in the post identified it as a photo of Pope Pius XII, the pontiff during World War Two, not Pope Francis. The image was published on Reuters in 2020 (archived here):
(Image source: Reuters.)
The post claims a Catholic Cardinal was involved with Epstein:
One name appears on both the Epstein flight logs AND the Vatican's internal communications: Cardinal Angelo Becciu. Becciu was convicted of financial crimes by the Vatican in 2023. But his Epstein connection was never investigated.
Lead Stories searched the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Epstein files and did not find any results for his name, as these screenshots show:
(Image source: U.S. Department of Justice.)
(Image source: U.S. Department of Justice.)
Lead Stories reached out to the Vatican for comment and will update the story when a response is received.
