Italian social media users have flooded platforms with wild suggestions that the leader of the Catholic Church is dead and that the papal ‘deep state’ is hiding the news as the pontiff approaches five weeks in hospital.
Pope Francis, 88, has been at Rome’s Gemelli hospital since February 14 for treatment after a complex lung infection turned into pneumonia in both lungs.
The Vatican say he is gradually recovering, with doctors recently suspending the use of his mechanical ventilation mask, while on Sunday he was pictured concelebreating a mass inside his private hospital chapel.
But Roman Catholic cardinals have now issued desperate calls to ‘free ourselves from much fake news’ as rumours continue to spread, despite the church issuing regular updates on the Pope’s condition.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said: ‘They say we, the Roman Curia, keep Francis frozen so that we can do our scheming.’
He suggested that the Vatican’s efforts to be more transparent than ever about the Pope’s health, which have involved regular public updates, have not stemmed accusations of a cover-up on social media.
Cardinal Ravasi added: ‘It’s the first time that they are saying the raw truth about the pope’s condition. It doesn’t work. It’s a toxic atmosphere.’
Vatican officials are also privately discussing the fake reports, according to the New York Times.
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The statue of John Paul II outside the Rome Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is recovering
Conspiracy theorists and opportunistic influencers claim the Vatican is using doctored audio of his voice to fool the public.
The Pope sounded breathless as he delivered a brief message earlier this month expressing thanks ‘from the bottom of my heart’ to well-wishers around the world who have offered their support.
Speaking in his native Spanish, the pontiff paused every few words to take a deep breath in the clip played during a nightly prayer service for the Pope in St Peter’s Square.
But in an appearance outside a shopping mall, Italian media personality Fabrizio Corona proclaimed: ‘He is really dead.
‘The audio is fake. It’s done with artificial intelligence.’
Some accounts have also claimed that the photo of the pontiff shared by the Vatican on Sunday were either old or AI-generated.
Others have descended on the hospital itself to try and garner evidence for their outlandish theories.
Nuns and other supporters have been praying near the statue of the late Pope John Paul II
Earlier this month the Pope expressed thanks to those who have wished him well around the world
Simone Basile, also known as The 8th King of Rome, has racked up millions of TikTok views during three trips to the hospital.
Leaving the hospital on Tuesday, he said: ‘It’s an unmistakable sign that he is no longer.’
Another influencer, Er Bombolino, peered through hospital windows in one of his videos while questioning whether the pope is ‘dead or alive’.
Nicola Cerbino, a spokesman for the hospital, said that the influencers ‘are going to places that have absolutely nothing to do’ with Francis’ ward. The pope’s private apartment, he said, was ‘impregnable.’
Cyabra, a social media intelligence company in Tel Aviv that monitors disinformation, said that around a third of over 3,600 accounts posting about Pope Francis’ health that it sampled were fake.
Rafi Mendelsohn, a spokesman for the company, said: ‘It becomes worrying and incredibly alarming.
‘It’s really ripe as a topic, if your objective is to create chaos and create distrust and spread confusion.’
While the Pope’s condition is now stable, he has been forced to issue a written prayer from his hospital bed for five consecutive weeks as he remains in a physically vulnerable state.
Doctors not involved in Francis’s care have said the Pope is likely to face a long, fraught road to recovery, given his age and other factors.
The latest medical bulletin from the Vatican suggests he is reducing his reliance on high-flow supplemental oxygen during the day, and that his double pneumonia infection, while not completely eliminated, is under control.
Plans to receive King Charles and Queen Camilla on April 8 are still due to go ahead.
The next update on his condition is expected on Monday.
