Vatican Warns about Fake Pope Quotes and Videos

by CNS · May 23, 2025

Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd as he rides in the popemobile up to the stage in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for his first weekly general audience, May 21, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

By Catholic News Service – All the speeches and messages Pope Leo XIV has given since becoming pope on May 8 are available on the Vatican website, which should be checked before sharing supposed quotes and videos, Vatican News said.

The Vatican News site published the warning in several languages on May 21 after a 36-minute “deep fake” – AI-generated – video was posted on YouTube.

The post, which used manipulated video of Pope Leo and an AI-generated voice with an accent that is not Pope Leo’s, praises Ibrahim Traoré, the military ruler of Burkina Faso.

Vatican News said the post was “produced using footage from Pope Leo XIV’s audience with journalists on Monday, May 12. A ‘morphing’ technique was used — that is, transforming the image so that the movement of the lips matches the AI-generated words.”

The video is only the latest example of social media fakes attributed to the new pope.

A popular meme circulating on Facebook, Instagram and other social media features a photo of Pope Leo from May 8 and the fake quote: “You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. He is sent to test you. And many are failing.”

According to snopes.com, the fact-checking website, the earliest posting of the supposed quote was May 14, but there is no evidence anywhere that the pope said it.

The Vatican website – www.vatican.va – offers papal texts, including the texts of video messages, in multiple languages, often including Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic, Chinese and Latin.